ON HIS recovery from a career-threatening injury Dejan Stefanovic has told the Eastern Daily Press that it's been difficult watching the Canaries from the sidelines but believes the Club will maintain their Championship status.
The central defender has been missing from the City team after picking up an anterior cruciate ligament injury in the Canaries' 2-2 draw with Preston at Carrow Road last November. With recuperation ahead of schedule, a visit to a London specialist next week will hopefully mean a pre-season return for the Serbian.
"Yes, of course it's been difficult, because I am part of this Club and I play for this Club and this is my job," said the 34-year-old. "It is sometimes very difficult when you see your team losing and not taking points and fighting against relegation.
"It is a difficult time, but we need to stay positive and look forward to the next game. We need to forget what has happened in the past.
"It would be a disaster for the Club to be relegated because I think this Club with the facilities, the ground, the city's standing in East Anglia - it deserves to be playing in the Premier League, I have always said that."
He continued: "It's up to the players," he said. "It doesn't matter who is the manager, I always think it's up to the players to show what they can do - and I still believe we haven't shown what we are capable of doing.
"We are a better team than this, but sometimes you can have better players and still struggle. It has happened many times in the Premier League as well, lots of good teams with good players have got relegated. We need to be ready for the fight."
The defender reflected on his previous relegation fight with Harry Redknapp's Portsmouth side back in 2006. "It was three or four years ago and we needed six or seven wins in the last 10 games to stay in the Premier League and we won enough of them to survive," he said.
"So everything is possible - win one or two games on the trot and things change - we need the confidence from one or two wins, but there isn't a lot of time and we need to do it as quickly as possible.
"We always say we have to win the next game, then it's the next game, then the next game after that, but we need to make this place a difficult one for the opposition to come and play at.
"But so many teams come to Norwich and they play like they play against Barcelona. They play relaxed. When I played at Portsmouth we made it so difficult for the opposition, the stadium was noisy, it was a small pitch and most of the games we won at home, which is not the case here at the moment.
"We need to win our home games and if we can take something from our away games then that's perfect."
Manager Bryan Gunn told the Norwich Evening News of his delight at seeing the former Fulham player back on the training pitch at Colney.
"Dejan, we're delighted to say, has been out on the training pitch jogging this week." He said. "It's a massive step for somebody who has had this operation. He has had a week's holiday, has come back refreshed from that and is really looking forward to stepping up his fitness work, so that's great.
"I know myself what it's like because I've been in the treatment room for long periods and you do wonder and you do hope for that day that you're on the training pitch. Until it actually comes, there is a lot of waiting around and hard work to be done.
"But he's come through it and he's very positive. We're delighted to see him around the grass areas instead of being in the gym, so that's a major positive for this week.
"Realistically, Dejan will be focused on getting ready for pre-season training and the start of next season," said Gunn.
"Behind the scenes, Simon Spencer and his physio team are ready to work with him as much as they have to through that time in order to get him back to first team action."
