AHEAD of tomorrow's battle with Swansea, Canary boss Glenn Roeder says he is shocked at the lengthy spell on the sidelines Dejan Stefanovic now faces after being stretchered off against Preston last Saturday.
The defender suffered ruptured cruciate ligaments after colliding with Preston's Stephen Elliot during the 2-2 draw last weekend. Roeder told canaries.co.uk Stefanovic had been extremely unlucky to come away with such horrific injuries.
"It's shocking news, how often do we see serious injuries like this occur?," said the City manager. "When you look at the incident, it's ridiculous - if you look how he did it, you see that situation hundreds of times in a season and people don't even get any injuries from it, they just carry on playing. He's got a ruptured cruciate ligament, we hope there's no other damage on the outside of his knee.
"The surgeon who will perform the operation, in my opinion, is the best. Andy Williams has operated on some of the most famous footballers in the country and has done this type of operation hundreds and hundreds of times on elite athletes. It makes sense to go to who is considered as the best in our opinion, and in his profession he is very highly thought of. When Matthew Bates was with us last season, we sent him to Mr Williams for a third cruciate repair, which Middlesbrough were happy about. Matthew's just played his second full 90 minutes this week so things are going well for him."
On Stefanovic, Roeder continued: "It's shocking news for Dejan personally to have an injury at this time of his life, not that we don't think he can make a full recovery but we want to wait and see what the surgeon's report is after he's gone in and had a look. Anything more than what I've already said would be guesswork."
Asked whether he was looking to bring anyone else in on loan to take Stefanovic's place, the Norwich boss replied: "Not at the moment, Elliot (Omosuzi) has proven he can stand in in central defence and do very well. Adam (Drury) has also done well, of course it's not ideal lacking height in central defence but they're both good defenders. We don't want to be in that position anyway - we need to stay positive that Doherty and Kennedy will stay fit, but we do also have to be mindful of what could potentially be available if anything happened to those two."
Antoine Sibierski obtained a knock to his knee in City's game with Preston, leaving Roeder with more injury frustrations. "Sibierski out for tomorrow's game," he told First News. "He's needed a steroid injection into his knee to calm down some irritated bursae in his knee.
"Hopefully we'll have him back for the Forest game, that's not definite but that's what we're hoping for. If it wasn't to be, he'd definitely be OK the following week."
City skipper Darel Russell received a three-match ban after he was shown the red card after a confrontation with Preston's Ross Wallace. On Russell's suspension, Roeder said: "Darel's suspension just compounds the problem of an unnecessary sending-off. We've now got to find someone to take Darel's place, he's done very well this season.
"I'm very much a 'glass is half full' person, we have to be positive, it opens an opportunity up for someone who has been on the fringes lately. If they take their chance over the next three games, Darel will have to be patient and wait to get back in the team because no one is guaranteed a place."
Defender John Kennedy's loan with the Canaries will draw to a close in January, and the City manager was asked whether he had spoken to Celtic regarding an extension to keep Kennedy at Carrow Road for longer. He added: "It's a bit too early, but now with Dejan being out it's something that we have to do because I need to have some clarity on all our loan players shortly. Not just yet, I think we can get ourselves into December before we have to pick up the phone and ring round to see which ones the managers are considering taking back."
