Oli Johnson is back at Carrow Road – although he may have only an outside chance of being involved in City's promotion chase.

The striker has been on loan at Yeovil since January, scoring four goals in 17 League One appearances, but City confirmed yesterday that his loan spell was now over.

Manager Paul Lambert does have options but there is no official word on the future of loan player Sam Vokes, who can be recalled by parent club Wolves after midnight on Thursday – after the Ipswich derby.

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has said he is likely to ask for Vokes to return as he tries to cope with a shortage of strikers, although word from Carrow Road yesterday was that Lambert would discuss that at his pre-match press conference in the morning.

If Vokes does go back, then Johnson will be hoping to get some sort of look-in, having fulfilled the loan requirement that he gets games under his belt, after just four league appearances from the subs' bench for City this season.

City fans breathed a sigh of relief when leading scorer Grant Holt shook off a hamstring problem to play, and score, in the 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest on Friday, when he started alongside the in-form Simeon Jackson.

Another loan player, Dani Pacheco, was an unused sub but is another option for Lambert, as is Chris Martin, who is back in training after a long injury lay-off.

Stephen Hughes returned from a loan spell at MK Dons recently, while Owain Tudur Jones, Cody McDonald, Tom Adeyemi and Steven Smith are on loan until the end of the season at Brentford, Gillingham, Bradford and Aberdeen respectively.