Johannes Hoff Thorup admits he is playing a delicate balancing act as he crosses his fingers he will have more players at his disposal when Norwich City return to action this weekend.

The City boss has been hit by a raft of injuries and one key suspension – and with it, their form has dipped.

They go into Saturday’s game at West Brom with a long list of selection question marks.

“We have to look at the group,” said Thorup. “We have to look at the players we have available so we can make the best possible plan after the break here, because it will be difficult matches for us again.

“It's not like when we come back, we just have everyone ready. Kenny (McLean) will still not be able to be a part of the team against West Brom (through suspension).

“There are still question marks around Marcelino (Nunez), Josh (Sargent) will not be ready, question marks about Angus (Gunn) maybe still.

“It's not like we just meet and then everything is back to normal. We have to use these days now to analyse and find out what can we actually do, because there's a probability that it will be the same players playing in West Brom.”

Thorup included Anis Ben Slimane in the side that lost 2-0 at home to Bristol City almost a fortnight ago, but the midfielder was running on empty after a hamstring problem.

“We had to do it, because there's not too many other options,” conceded Thorup.

Anis Ben Slimane was pushed back to action quicker than expected after injury.Anis Ben Slimane was pushed back to action quicker than expected after injury. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd) “It comes back to the group that we have at the moment, which is a lot of young players. We have to be able to still prepare in the best possible way, from Monday to Friday, with training sessions and consistently training and improving and developing.

“We're not there yet where we can only focus on the games, and then just keep them off the grass for four or five days in a row. That will not give us the performances that we need. So it's been a couple of weeks here with balancing all these situations in training and games – de-loading or loading players. And it seems like we haven't got that right.”

“It's always about that balance, not doing stupid things, just because we can see we need a result. Hopefully more players will be available, and that gives us some other options.”