CITY defender Jon Otsemobor believes the untimely departure of Matthew Bates will have no bearing on his own motivation to stay in the first team.

On-loan Middlesbrough defender Bates returned to the north east yesterday after suffering a recurrence of a cruciate knee ligament injury in Norwich's 1-1 draw with Hull.

It was the third time in less than 15 months the 21-year-old had suffered such an injury - and the second time it had happened to his right knee.

It means Bates is once again preparing complete an unwanted hat-trick of operations before undertaking the long road back to recovery - all 10 months of it.

Bates' injury struck in only his third game for the Canaries after joining them on loan. After replacing Otsemobor as a second half substitute in the 1-0 win over Preston, Bates was rewarded with a starting place for the next two games.

With Bates now back at Boro' it leaves Otsemobor with no real competition for his right-back berth. But the former Liverpool and Crewe man believed he would still be under pressure for his place.

"Not just me, but all the lads feel that every day in training we have to prove ourselves," said Otsemobor, a certainty to start against Leicester on Saturday. "With Matthew being here it put more pressure on me playing well when I started and obviously in training. But with Matthew not being here I don't think that's going to change the way I go about playing games or training.

"There's still other players in the squad who can play in my position, so I feel that if I wasn't playing well or wasn't pulling my weight the gaffer wouldn't take two seconds to leave me out of the team or leave me out of the squad and put someone else there, so I don't think that it makes much of a difference whether Matthew is here or not."

Otsemobor said he had plenty of sympathy for his former team-mate, with many of the City squad texting Bates to wish him a full and speedy recovery.

And boss Roeder said his heart went out to a player who had already suffered more than his fair share of injury problems at a very young age.

"We're all upset for him, because he made such a good impression on us as a person first and foremost," he said. "And obviously we knew he was a good player before we took him. I think he proved that straight away in his first game when he came on. But he's lucky he's got the character that he's got because he will battle back to full fitness.

"It's not a question of wishing him a speedy recovery; I think it's wishing him a full recovery no matter how long it takes. I spoke to him yesterday and I will keep in touch with him over the next nine or 10 months until he has regained full fitness. He's the sort of player we probably couldn't have really afforded, but he's the sort of player I would have liked to have signed. If we are going to do the job properly here we need seven or eight Matthews Bates' at the Club."

Roeder's attentions now turn to preserving City's unbeaten run when they travel to the Walkers Stadium on Saturday.Ironically, for a team which has travelled poorly in recent seasons, the Canaries now find themselves branded as away-day specialists following successive wins at Barnsley, Southampton and Cardiff.

At home, City have become draw experts, with four stalemates from their last five league outings. And Otsemobor was at a loss to explain the difference in results.

"I don't think there's much of a change, I just think it's the belief and the confidence in the players, regardless of whether we are playing at home or away. We're going into games thinking that we're not going to get beaten."

The defender has also had his own injury problems this campaign, with the 24-year-old struggling with a chronic Achilles' strain. And with Bates now out of the picture, the right-back said he had little choice but to play through the pain barrier.

"I don't think it's going to go away this season," he said. "I spoke to the physio and he said I'd recover properly once I get the time off come the end of the season. It's still the same situation for me. I'm taking my painkillers before training and before games and I'm just getting on with it basically."