Philippe Clement has confirmed Vladan Kovacevic will miss Norwich City’s clash with Portsmouth on Saturday after suffering a concussion against Swansea.
The goalkeeper was unavailable for the 1-0 defeat to Southampton and is still recovering from the head injury, with Clement hopeful he could return next week.
“Vlad has a concussion injury because of the contact he had in the Swansea game,” Clement said.
“He got the knee of the opponent against his head.
“He has a concussion injury and will not be available for Saturday also but we will see for next week.”
There is also a fitness concern over Kellen Fisher, who returned from international duty with a back problem and also missed the defeat.
“Kellen came back from the national team with a problem in his back and has had treatment for a week, ten days,” Clement said.
“He was better but the problem came back so he got a scan today and it doesn’t look really serious, a really big injury but he will need some treatment and we will see for Saturday if he will be available.”
Clement was also frustrated with Norwich’s final 20 minutes against Southampton, believing some of his substitutes failed to make the required impact.
“We spoke about small margins and I saw that tonight,” he said.
“The moment we need to change when some batteries are running low, we put a few players in who gave something extra to the team but also a few who did not today, for me.
“Clearly with some players there is a lot of work to do to get them to the level we want to get them.
“I know they come out of long-term injuries but it needs to be more otherwise you cannot make the difference at the end of the game that you want.
“It was not good enough and that’s why I was disappointed with the last 20 minutes because we could have done more.”