Alex Neil expects Kyle Lafferty not to miss the Premier League kick-off after missing out on Norwich City's tour to the Alps this week following a knee injury picked up on the eve of City's Hitchin friendly romp.

The Northern Ireland international striker is yet to feature in pre-season after returning to his parent club over the summer after a loan stint in Turkey, and suffered an injury to his left knee last week that has left the 27-year-old on crutches as a precautionary measure ahead of the opener against Crystal Palace on August 8.

Jonny Howson has missed the last two friendlies with a viral infection but travelled on Saturday with the rest of a 25-man squad to City's base in the German hamlet of Grassau, and Seb Bassong is expected to return this week from a minor hamstring concern after missing out at Cambridge United on Friday.

Swedish international left-back Martin Olsson is also with the group as he continues his comeback from summer shoulder surgery.

'Kyle is quite unfortunate because he would have played the other night at Hitchin,' said Neil. 'He suffered an injury the day before which will keep him out for a couple of weeks. That is disappointing for him and us. He is not going to be able to take part in the games so there is not point in him coming with us. Jonny has not been well. He has had a viral infection so there is no injury as such. Seb just has a tight hamstring the other night so we didn't want to take any chances.

'It was precautionary but we have two games over here and I want him to play a part in them because they will be sterner tests, in terms of the calibre of opposition.

'We have a couple of niggles and that is to be expected this time of the year. They come back to training and do a lot of straight-line stuff and running and then they get to playing games and the body has to adapt to that again. We are now upping their game time.'

The likes of Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Tony Andreu are also part of the touring party, but Ignasi Miquel, Josh Murphy and Louis Thompson will be with the club's development squad, who are training in Austria and are scheduled to play two friendlies on Tuesday against SV Kirchdorf and on Thursday against Gaziantepspor in Jenbach.

The trio were on a flight out of Stansted on Sunday morning along with the rest of the development squad, who will be under the control of academy chief Gregg Broughton during their week-long stay.