MICHAEL Turner is looking forward to adding competition to the Canaries’ squad after successfully coming through the first half of the Under-21s’ friendly against Charlton Athletic on Tuesday.

The defender has been missing with a hamstring injury sustained on New Year’s Day against Crystal Palace, but completed 45 minutes without any issues as Mark Robson’s outfit won 3-2 at Colney Training Centre.

“It felt really good to be back playing. I trained last week and again this week a couple of times before Tuesday, but it’s nice to be back in a game situation,” he said when speaking exclusively to canaries.co.uk.

“The intensity is slightly different from training. You prepare in a slightly different way, so it’s nice getting back used to that again.

“There are good defenders in our squad – there will be four fit centre-halves now so there is going to be good competition for places, so whoever plays is going to have to perform to keep the shirt.”

Turner admitted his frustration at having had an impressive season curtailed by the injury, which he immediately thought was serious when he pulled up at Selhurst Park.

“It felt quite a bad one when I first done it. I’ve never had a muscle injury like that really, so it was a new one for me,” he added.

“To be ruled out for 12 weeks was obviously a massive blow for me because I was playing in the team regularly and playing consistently quite well, so to be out for a long period of time was disappointing. It’s one of those things that you have to get on with though.”

On the Club’s Premier League run-in, Turner commented: “It’s a huge run of games we’ve got coming up.

“We were disappointed with the last result, but we have shown at home that we’re capable of beating some of the best teams in the league, so it’s important that we get back to that on Saturday.”

RE-TURNER: DEFENDER ON INJURY COMEBACK

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