Jonny Howson will miss the Championship kick-off after suffering medial knee ligament damage in Friday's 1-1 friendly against SC Bastia in France.

Howson left Carrow Road on Monday night following City's latest 5-1 warm-up win over OGC Nice on crutches and Norwich chief Neil Adams confirmed afterwards the influential midfielder is not expected to be fit for the opening day trip to Molineux.

'His is a little bit more of a longer term one,' said Adams, with Kyle Lafferty (shin) and Alex Tettey (groin) both expected to back within the next week, whilst Martin Olsson missed out due to a private family matter in his native Sweden. 'Fingers crossed if Jonny is not ready for Wolves then soon after that.

'It is a big blow to lose him for a couple of weeks. He is fantastic player. It was a nothing tackle but he has just tweaked his medial knee ligament. There is no serious damage there but we are hoping he gets fitter sooner than we hope because he is a player you want about.

'Kyle is a lot closer than Jonny. Kyle we hope will be fit enough to train later this week and if so he will join in on Friday. Alex is another we hope he will train this week but probably won't be fit for Friday but in contention for Wolves. Martin is fine. He has a bit of a personal family issue. He has flown back to Sweden and we gave him today off but he will be back with us and available for Friday.'

Adams revealed there was no change on the transfer front, despite fevered speculation around the likes of Leroy Fer, but the Norwich boss would not be drawn on the presence of QPR midfielder Gary O'Neil sat in the Carrow Road stands on Monday night.

'There is a few we are looking at and obviously we have to be prepared,' he said. 'In some respects I will be glad when the transfer window is closed because that means I keep most of my players. We know the position we are in and we have to be looking to replace players with better ones if they do leave. There will be a lot of names being bandied about. We have 30 odd days to go and I want us to add not lose players.

'The likes of Leroy and Nathan (Redmond) and Gary (Hooper) know that I want them to stay. I have spoken to all of them and they know how I feel. We don't want to lose good players but we have to be realistic. Robert Snodgrass was another I didn't want to lose but the money was too good.'