Norwich City defender Michael Turner is unlikely to be fit enough to return from injury for Saturday's crunch clash against Sunderland, City manager Chris Hughton has said.

Turner has returned to full training and played 45 minutes of the club's Under-21 side's 3-2 friendly win against Charlton at Colney on Tuesday afternoon, as did on-loan winger Jonas Gutierrez.

But Hughton says Saturday's Premier League clash at Carrow Road is likely to be too soon for both, with Turner not having played since New Year's Day because of a hamstring injury and Gutierrez since injuring his calf in the 2-1 loss at Cardiff at the start of February.

'Certainly for Michael it's too soon, Jonas possibly as well, with the period of time he's been out for,' Hughton told Norwich City TV.

'It's also about the amount of training they're able to do, to put somebody into contention. They're ones that we are always assessing and thinking about but the good thing is they are both back on the training pitch and no problems.'

Hughton also confirmed that Dutch midfielder Leroy Fer is still 'a few weeks' away from a return from his hamstring problem.

With Sunderland just four points behind City, and with three games in hand, Hughton knows exactly how important the match is to City's Premier League survival hopes.

'We're at home, our record at home has certainly been good of late, we haven't conceded many goals at home,' Hughton continued.

'What we've got to do is make sure that we can be positive enough to make sure we can score the goals that we need on Saturday.

'But it's a real good opportunity for us to bounce back (from last Saturday's 4-2 loss at Southampton) and generally with this team the reaction to a bad performance or a bad defeat has generally been good.'

For all the news from this afternoon's pre-match press conference from Norwich City writers Paddy Davitt and Michael Bailey, check back to this website later today and see tomorrow's Eastern Daily Press or Norwich Evening News for more build-up to the big game.