Nelson Oliveira could make an unexpectedly early return against Reading at Carrow Road tomorrow, as the illness and injury issues affecting Norwich City's squad start to ease.

Ahead of Tuesday's 1-1 draw at Barnsley head coach Daniel Farke had suggested that the Portuguese striker could miss two weeks with a calf injury but Oliveira has returned to training sooner than expected.

'Some good news with Nelson,' Farke said at Colney this afternoon. 'The prediction was that he has to do two weeks of rehab but he has looked much better and yesterday he was already doing an individual session on the pitch and today he did a big part of our team programme as well.

'We'll wait and see how he reacts over the day and tomorrow morning but it could be an option that we have him for a short-term appearance on the bench.

'So it's not 100 percent sure, because normally we have to speak to the physios and doctors to see if the risk is not too high, but it could be that we have a short-term decision and that he is involved for at least a short-term appearance on the bench.'

The illnesses which had affected Harrison Reed and Christoph Zimmermann are also clearing up and there was positive news on the foot injury of Alex Tettey.

The former Norway international midfielder was taken off on a stretcher in the 80th minute of the Oakwell draw with a gash to one of his feet which was bleeding heavily, which initially looked to be a serious injury.

'In general we still have big problems in injury terms,' Farke continued. 'So that means Marco Stiepermann (hernia surgery) hopefully will return pretty soon after the international break, we hope the same for Moritz Leitner (hamstring), probably after the Fulham game.

'Tom Trybull, if everything works perhaps we have him for the last four or five games.

'So they are out and after the last games we had big concerns about Alex Tettey but it looks much better today.

'In general it was a very unlucky situation, nothing was broken and hopefully he will be available again after the international break. It was just a hit and a really swollen foot, okay he lost a lot of blood in this moment because the vein was injured.

'So in general good news, for sure he is not available tomorrow but after the international break he can return.'

On-loan Southampton midfielder Reed was only fit enough to make up the numbers on the bench at Barnsley but Zimmermann played 56 minutes before wearily heading back to the dressing room early, and City's boss will be careful with his big centre-back, who lost almost a stone in weight.

'Harrison is fit again so he looks much better, so he'll be there tomorrow, which is some good news,' the German continued. 'He just needed some days but the days after the game were pretty good for him.

'Christoph Zimmermann is a bit tricky, to be honest he was nearly dead after the game so the 50 minutes of load didn't help so much, in fact he was really uncomfortable on Wednesday so today it's much better again so he will be in the squad.

'It was not good for his recreation and we have to be a bit careful with him so that there is no bigger setback.

'He lost 6kgs and this is not easy for a professional sportsman it's really trick because it's not like he needs to lose some weight - like we all need do sometimes – so when you lose 6kgs in one week it's not helpful.

'After the international break I think he will be totally fit but also for tomorrow he is available.'

Farke also explained that long-term injury victims Matt Jarvis (ankle) and Louis Thompson (Achilles) will be targeting under-23 games before the end of the season, although the latter may even have to wait until pre-season.