Manager knows that Canaries will be pushed hard against French side

NEIL Adams says his Norwich City team will get the challenge they require when they take on French Ligue 1 outfit Bastia on Friday (6pm kick-off, 5pm UK).

Three victories out of three tell the story of a positive start to the campaign for the Canaries, yet City’s boss is looking forward to being more heavily tested against Claude Makélélé’s side.

“It will be a good test because they’re a French top league team. They have some very good players in their side and that’s what we want,” he told Norwich City TV.

“We’ll go to win the game but we will be tested, we know that. It will give us a good indication of what we need to work on and where we need to be.

“In a perverse kind of way, you’re almost anticipating one or two things not being so great, so that it gives us a chance then to put it right for when we play Wolves, and obviously we’re expecting that.”

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A small number of players have rested minor knocks this week, but Adams is confident that there are no serious issues.

“There’s nothing that I’m hoping will impact too much on next week,” he explained.

“They’re itching to train which is great to see, but we’re having to manage the ones who have picked up bumps and bruises and a few niggles.

“Russell Martin for one – he had a double hernia operation in the summer and it’s natural that you get reactions to the scar tissue. He trained on Thursday fine, but we might just have to pull the reins on him. It’s similar with one or two others.”

ADAMS ON LEWIS GRABBAN’S RECOVERY
“I was hoping to get him back earlier this week, he’s almost there. He’s still a little bit sore with his Achilles and there comes a point where you might have to push him a little bit to get him out there, but what you don’t want to do is do that and then he misses the start of the season or longer.

“I’m hoping he’ll be ready if not for the game on Friday, then for Monday. We want him ready for the next game or the next game or the one after that, but it’s certainly not longer term.”

ADAMS ON KYLE LAFFERTY’S FITNESS
“It’s a contact injury which is the best case, he’s just had a bang on the side of his shin. We’ve sent him off for a scan, we don’t think it’s going to be too bad but we’ll get the results on Friday morning. We’re hoping that’s a matter of days rather than weeks.

“He just puts himself about on the training ground; it’s just an unfortunate consequence of the way he is. He works his socks off, he gets stuck in and he trains like he plays.”