Grant Hanley was ruled out of Norwich City’s 2-1 Premier League defeat at Leeds after testing positive for Covid – but the Canaries did seek guidance on whether the captain could play.

The Premier League made it clear Hanley would not be able to feature at Elland Road, although Smith confirmed following the game the Scot was not showing any symptoms after returning a positive result on Saturday.

The UK government eased restrictions last month, as part of a ‘Living with Covid’ plan, which included lifting the law requiring people to stay at home if you test positive.

But the current government and public health advice remains people who test positive should look to self-isolate for a period of days.

“He can walk around in society and go to Starbucks and have a coffee but he can’t play Premier League football,” said Smith. “The regulations are there. That’s the world, or the country we live in at the moment. Boris (Johnson) makes a decision and the Premier League doesn’t have to follow it sometimes.

"He came in (Saturday morning), totally asymptomatic, but tested positive on a lateral flow.”

Sam Byram and Christoph Zimmermann were other absentees at Leeds, as a precaution, while Lukas Rupp was replaced at the interval following his recent layoff with hamstring related issues.

“No injury, I just thought he was off the pace in the game. He had been out for a while,” said Smith. “I thought he put in a good second-half performance against Chelsea and earned his starting place. But he was just off the pace and that is why I changed it.

“Sam was still fatigued. With his past history with hamstring injuries we couldn’t risk him.

Zimbo had an infection in his eye.”

Norwich now face a break from Premier League action until they resume their bid to beat the drop at Brighton on April 2.