Alex Neil expects Graham Dorrans to return for the club's Championship promotion push on the eve of Saturday's final match of his initial loan spell – but the hunt for fresh firepower may prove more elusive.

The Canaries have until next Thursday to bring in a striker with Lewis Grabban sidelined after ankle surgery and Luciano Becchio out-of-favour.

'Its difficult. We have gone down many avenues with different players but at this stage of the season teams are not willing to let players go,' said Neil. 'Generally the ones you can get, if I look at the situation we are in, I am not sure they would make the difference for us. To find someone who is better than what we have here is difficult. It is not for the lack of trying but sometimes you can't just go and get anyone to fill a jersey, you want to bring in quality. We're still trying.'

Dorrans is poised to return ahead of the emergency loan deadline to ensure the West Brom midfielder is eligible for a potential play-off push.

'There are discussions on-going to hopefully extend that. We have the window coming up after this game to sort it out,' said Neil. 'We had to be aware of the potential to get him again for the play-offs and we didn't want to get into a situation where we were caught short. If we could get a break period then that would make it possible, without him missing out on a game for us. If we do reach the play-off final then he would be available if we can manage to sort that one out.

'Technically he is very good, he links the game, he drops off, he gets into good pockets and he has a real good range to his passing. He has the other side to his game as well, which we have not seen so much of, which is getting further forward and I am hoping that will come out in weeks to come - if we manage to get him back here.'