Alex Neil is challenging Dieumerci Mbokani to fire Norwich to Premier League safety and earn himself a Carrow Road summer move.

City negotiated a buy-out option in their season-long loan swoop for the Dynamo Kiev frontman, who produced an impressive goalscoring display in last weekend's tense 3-2 top flight win against Newcastle.

Neil revealed yesterday any decisions on his future team-building plans hinge on Norwich successfully securing their Premier League status over the run-in.

'First and foremost we need to focus on staying in the Premier League. I think Dieumerci would like to play in the Premier League, certainly not in the Championship in comparison to that,' said Neil. 'We need to focus on that objective and once hopefully we have got to that stage we can turn towards next year and our plans, but until that is secure we are not going to think about that. What I would say is that on his last couple of performances there is no doubt he can make an impact at this level.'

The 30-year-old was quoted earlier this week suggesting he had quit international football with the DR Congo over their lack of support following his involvement in the recent Brussels terrorist attacks, in sharp contrast to the way Norwich reacted to the shocking incidents.

'Diuemerci was involved in potentially a life-threatening incident, which is obviously horrific,' said Neil. 'As far as I am aware some of the debris was in and around him. It wasn't that he just heard the explosion, he was in the vicinity and I think he saw some things that no-one would ever like to see.

'We as a club made a decision to try and support him in every way possible that we could. It is important for him to know that. Things like that can affect people in different ways. For him, he took a couple of days out with his family just to try and come to terms with what had happened and get his head around it. We gave him the utmost support and his response in the last two games has been fantastic.'