Hard work brings its rewards, appears to be Alex Neil's pre-season mantra as the Norwich City boss strives to equip his troops for the arduous Championship terrain.

Neil gently ribbed Timm Klose at Colney on Friday after the Swiss international had taken to social media to reveal how tough Neil's fitness regime is, led by the Scot's sports science department.

'He has started pre-season quite well and he has informed quite a few on social media this is his hardest pre-season but he is a good lad, a character,' said Neil.

'This part of pre-season is literally trying to push them to the limit but making sure they come through unscathed and without breaking down. I have Nick Davies and the sports science guys, who are fantastic, but the lads have come back in good nick which is a credit to them. Nowadays for football players their whole world and life revolves around them being fit and athletic all year round.'

Neil plans to give most of his squad 60 minutes each at Peterborough this afternoon in a 120-minute contest after the midweek Lowestoft Town wash-out.

He said: 'We had a plan to do 45 minutes against Walsall and the same the other day just to make sure we didn't have some playing twice as long as others. What happened (at Lowestoft) was disappointing for us and them. The simple fact is the ball couldn't travel through the grass with all the rain and I have guys who run at really high speeds like Cameron (Jerome) and the Murphy boys and if the ball gets caught in the grass and stops suddenly then you risk injury. We tried to work on the pitch and we gave it as long as possible and I was as disappointed as them to call it off. If this was a week before the season I would be more upset because we have our schedule planned out but we just did those minutes between ourselves the following day.'

Jonny Howson (virus) will not be risked at London Road on Saturday while Russell Martin and Vadis Odjidja are also poised to miss out. But both Klose and Alex Tettey are up to speed after recovering from knee and foot injuries respectively that curtailed their involvement at the end of the Premier League campaign.

City's Euro 2016 contingent will link up with the rest of the squad next week when they fly out to their Austrian training base.

He said: 'Timm and Alex are perfectly fine and have taken part in everything we have done since coming back. Jon has a wee virus which is unfortunate for him and he will be out for a couple of days. We are looking for good competitive matches at this stage with no injuries and we will get that at Peterborough and next week.

'That is basically what you want from pre-season. The camp has gone well so far. Last summer I took 26 players away (on tour) with us so it will be between 26 and 28 again. Some of the Euro lads will come back midway into that trip.'