After seeing his return to the field for Norwich cut short over the weekend, Josh Sargent has likely avoided any severe problems, according to Canaries head coach Dean Smith.
Sargent missed several weeks due to an ankle injury and returned to Norwich’s 2-0 loss against Aston Villa on Saturday, only to depart again 14 minutes later with an apparent injury to the same ankle that had been keeping him off the field.
Canaries head coach Dean Smith later confirmed that it was indeed a return of the same issue, and accepted the culpability for taking the risk on pushing him back into action.
“He aggravated his ankle,” Smith confirmed in his statements after the game. “It was a bit of a risk to play him but we knew there were consequences depending on our result and other results elsewhere.”
Smith did, however, try to alleviate any concerns that the re-injury was a severe problem, stating, “He just aggravated it slightly, it won’t be too bad, but that was the reason he came off.”
The loss at Villa officially relegated Norwich back to the Championship still with four games left to play.
Despite some brief flashes from Sargent and the team as a whole, the Canaries have been fully deserving of their likely last-place finish, only scoring a paltry 22 goals through 34 games while conceding 71, with neither of their head coaches – Smith nor his popular predecessor Daniel Farke – being able to coax any consistency from the squad.
Whether Sargent will be back on the field for their final four games, as they try to avoid the ignominy of a last place finish, is yet to be seen.
Norwich will be back in action on Sunday afternoon when they host West Ham United.
