‘He isn’t far away’ - Newcastle United man edging closer to debut after injury setback

Isaac Hayden ‘isn’t far away’ from making his Norwich City debut, according to Dean Smith.

The Newcastle United midfielder joined the Canaries on a season-long loan deal in the summer, however is yet to make his debut due to a knee injury.

Hayden was left out of the Magpies’ 25-man Premier League squad for the second half of last season after undergoing knee surgery.

And unfortunately for the 27-year-old, he suffered a setback when his knee began to swell up in the final weeks of pre-season.

Smith, however, hopes to have Hayden available soon to help his side’s Championship automatic promotion push.

“Isaac’s back running now after a ten-day period,” Smith told Norfolk Live. “It is always a concern when you bring in a player who was fit.

“We have to remember that he had an operation last season, but he trained for six weeks with no problems at all at Newcastle towards the end of last season. He came in for the first week and trained with us and it was fine. Then his knee started swelling up.

“He’s had to have an operation to deal with that. You can get a couple of complications and he’s had that at the moment. But I expect him to be out on the grass soon. It’s been frustrating for everybody, none more so than Isaac.

“He’s a clever lad. Very intuitive and talks to us about the game.

“He was talking to me on Sunday about the Blackpool game. He’d obviously watched it and wanted to talk about the different incidents, what happened and where he felt we were good.

“He is a guy we look forward to working with and he isn’t far away.”

It is understood Norwich have an obligation to make the loan permanent if they’re promoted to the top-flight at the first attempt.

The Canaries currently sit second in the Championship table.