CHRIS LAKEY Peter Grant is sweating on the fitness of Canaries skipper Adam Drury before settling on his side to face Colchester at Layer Road.The City left-back limped out of the last game - the 1-0 win over Stoke a fortnight ago - after just 23 minutes with an injury to his left ankle.

CHRIS LAKEY

Peter Grant is sweating on the fitness of Canaries skipper Adam Drury before settling on his side to face Colchester at Layer Road tomorrow.

The City left-back limped out of the last game - the 1-0 win over Stoke a fortnight ago - after just 23 minutes with an injury to his left ankle.

Striker Chris Brown is definitely out, with Grant estimating a week to 10 days before he is fit to play after a hamstring problem.

"Hamstrings for me are a problem," he said. "People say they are fine with them but I am always a bit concerned.

"We're not concerned in respect of the injury but the time - when he thinks he's fit and when we think he's fit. Obviously he is champing at the bit to play, but I cannot take the chance."

Striker Robert Earnshaw is back on the Colney training fields while Luke Chadwick's rehabilitation continued with his second 90-minute outing for the reserves in midweek.

"Adam is the one we will give until the last moment, but almost everybody else is fighting fit," said Grant. "Earnie is doing well in his recovery. He has been out and kicked a ball this week for the first time and he feels good in himself.

"Luke Chadwick got 90 minutes for the reserves, Jurgen Colin got 90 minutes and Robert Eagle got 90 minutes, so it is good for the guys to get that period of time and we're pleased with all of them. This is a big period for us."

The two-week international break has allowed some niggling injuries to heal, but while the City players were given three days off they weren't allowed to relax.

"Some guys had not been training that much - they've just been playing and the coaching sessions have been tapered to ticking them over really," said Grant.

"So it's good to get the work back into them. There's a lot of hard graft gone into them this week.

"They had a good few days off, three days off, which I thought was very, very important to them. They have come back and they have been great, they have worked really, really hard.

"In the three days off they still had to do a couple of runs in that period so it was not complete days off, they still had to be focus on being professional footballers.

"They did it tremendously well and have worked extremely hard since we come back in and their attitude has been excellent, so if we can continue that hopefully we can get the performances and results to go along with that."