Sam Byram has cleared a ‘huge mental barrier’ for Dean Smith as he edges towards a long awaited Premier League return at Norwich City.
The former Leeds and West Ham full back played his first competitive game in 17 months, when he had 45 minutes in a recent Premier League Cup outing at development level.
Byram is scheduled to step up his comeback early next week in another Premier League Two development away game against Wolves.
Smith is preparing his squad to face the same opponents on Saturday at Carrow Road, but looks forward to adding Byram to his mix.
“We want to see him progressing because we all know what a good player Sam can be for us,” said the City chief. “I'll be led by the medical staff, when it comes to the pace of Sam’s recovery.
"He's had a nasty hamstring injury. We all agreed that he'd get 45 minutes last weekend against Charlton.
"We'll probably step that up to 60 or 70 minutes on Monday, and then look to build towards 90 minutes. I think he's just got himself over a huge barrier to go and start a game, from a mental more than a physical point of view.”
Byram and Christoph Zimmermann are the only longer term absentees unavailable to Smith. Kieran Dowell returned to training on Thursday, after his ‘Covid-related’ absence against Southampton.
Ozan Kabak missed out on that matchday squad following a recent bout of glandular fever.
NCFC Extra: Team news Norwich City v Wolves
Smith admits he has a healthy selection headache in central defence, with Grant Hanley and Ben Gibson preferred against the Saints to Irish prospect Andrew Omobamidele.
“For me, it's great the competition is there and Ben and Grant now know that they have to be at the top of their games,” said Smith. “Ozan was unfortunate not to be in the squad.
"He was ill the week before and had only done a couple of training sessions before that. Andrew obviously was in the team against Brentford and played really well.
"I just felt the understanding between Grant and Ben and the experience they had, within that right footed and left footed balance, would help us against Southampton.
"They defended the penalty box really well. Yes, there was some mistakes in there, and that is something we have to iron out. But I want competition and I'm sure that we'll get that from Andrew and Ozan pushing.”
Smith will demand Norwich carry on in the same vein as they finished against the Saints, when the tackle Wolves.
“They've set themselves the standards now,” he said. “We still need to improve on defending our box, not conceding big chances, but also improving our creativity as well. I was disappointed with the first half last week.
"I thought Southampton played at a really high level, but we just didn't engage high enough at all and sat back a little bit.
"We took a lot of pressure and I think at this level if you do that then the opposition is going to find ways, with the quality available in this league, of scoring goals.
“We stepped up second half, we stepped up to the standards required and we got our rewards in the end. We changed personnel, we made one change at half-time, we tweaked the tactics a little bit, but we just asked more from the players to get on the ball. We got a reaction from them, which is what we want.”
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