CITY winger Lee Croft is hoping to recover from his ankle injury in time for this weekend's clash with Sheffield Wednesday.

Croft was absent from action for only the third time this season during Norwich's 1-1 draw away to Birmingham, after the wide man picked up a knock to his ankle during training a day earlier.

Speaking to canaries.co.uk, he said: "I've not trained for quite a while now so I'm hoping it keeps improving and I can get back into training Thursday or Friday, so I can get back into the game on Saturday. If it keeps going the way it is and the physios keep doing their work, then hopefully I'll be involved.

"It killed me to miss Birmingham, it was the first game that I've sat out and watched and it was so frustrating. But it gives you that hunger to get back as quickly as possible - it was a hard thing to do watching the lads at St Andrews, and it would be really good to get back in against Sheffield Wednesday."

With City's next opponents currently 13th in the table, Croft added the Canaries were hoping the position would prove unlucky for the Owls. "There's still a massive job to do and we need to keep doing what we're doing and continue to put in the performances like we have been," he said. "We need to make sure we take nothing less than three points against Sheffield Wednesday.

"We're taking each game as it comes, which is important and we need to go into every game like it's a cup final now. Everyone's confident, the international break came at a bad time when we were on a roll and now we're looking forward to getting back into matches."

He continued: "I think after the Blackpool game a lot of people had written us off, but we showed good character and we didn't let our heads drop after that game. It wasn't a good match and it wasn't a good performance, but since then we've really stuck together and put in the performances.

"There's pressure but you can't let it get to you too much, there's a lot at stake but you need to go into games confidently. The way we're playing at the moment and with the results we've had, we're going into games with confidence and we're expecting to win. The situation we're in isn't nice and it does affect you, but there's no point feeling sorry for ourselves - we're the only ones who can do anything about it so we need to do that."

With questions put to Croft by reporters asking how he felt personally about the Canaries' season so far, the 23-year-old gave a positive response: "I've enjoyed my football this year, obviously apart from the fact we've been down by the bottom for a lot of it. I'm settled and I love playing here, and I'm enjoying myself - when you're doing that, the performances usually come and I think if you work hard that helps as well.

"If you make your own luck and you work hard, you'll be all right. It's been my best goal tally and I could have had a few more as well, as I missed a few chances. I said it would be nice to score a few more goals and I've got five."