Alex Neil insists any suggestion Timm Klose's omission from Norwich City's line up hinges on a clause that would trigger additional payments to his old club is 'absolute nonsense'.

The City boss shot down speculation the Swiss international's absence from the club's recent Championship tussles is based on a potential financial outlay Norwich would be liable to pay if Klose makes a set number of appearances at Carrow Road.

Klose's last senior outing came in the 3-2 defeat to Leeds United on November 5 with Ryan Bennett and Seb Bassong now ahead of the popular 28-year-old in the pecking order.

The fans' favourite arrived from Wolfsburg in January 2016 for an undisclosed fee, believed to be in the region of £7.5m, but has fell out of favour during the club's poor run of results.

Neil had already addressed the reason for Klose's demotion and the Scot was equally forthright regarding the latest conspiracy theory put to him on Thursday afternoon at Colney.

'Absolute nonsense,' said Neil, speaking ahead of Huddersfield's televised league visit on Friday night. 'That is probably some lad sat in his house thinking, 'oh, I know why this is probably not happening,' because I can tell you that is absolute nonsense. I think Seb (Bassong) and Ryan (Bennett) are physically the most dominant centre-backs we have got. The likes of Timm and Russell (Martin) bring different qualities.

'Looking at set plays I felt we did look a bit vulnerable at times this season, purely because of height and aggression. Because of that I have decided to go with my two, big strapping lads as centre backs. Like you saw certainly on Tuesday night they were completely dominant in the air. Physically, they bullied their forward players and I thought they performed really, really well.'

Cameron Jerome returns to the squad after sitting out the last three games with back trouble. Neil is monitoring some 'minor niggles' following the midweek 1-0 win over Aston Villa. Louis Thompson (pelvis) is still ruled out and Matt Jarvis will make another development appearance next week against Blackburn at Colney.

'Cameron's back was a bit tight and different things,' said Neil. 'That is a delicate areas of the body and can take while but he has done enough this week to be involved. There are a couple of bumps and bruises we are monitoring but nothing at this moment of any note. Matt has another run out coming on Monday with Blackburn's U23s so he will play in that.'