Alex Neil insists the likes of Josh Murphy and Louis Thompson have not been banished to Norwich City's development squad on the club's tour of the Alps.

The duo featured in Tuesday's development friendly 7-0 win against SV Kirchdorf, with Neil an interested spectator at the Leerberg-Arena Kirchdorf in Austria.

The pair were left behind in England when City's 25-man senior squad flew out to their German base in Grassau on Saturday for a week-long tour.

Murphy, Thompson and Ignasi Miquel joined up with the development squad instead, who departed from Stansted on Sunday, after featuring in the opening pre-season friendlies against Gorleston, Hitchin and Cambridge United.

'I have a big squad and a lot of players who need games,' said Neil. 'Those three are playing on Tuesday and Thursday because it is really important I get as many minutes into their legs as I possibly can. Unfortunately, 25 doesn't go into 11. It is as simple as that so people shouldn't read anything else into it.

'A lot of the time I have first team senior players needing game-time and you saw that against Maccabi Haifa.'

Josh's twin, Jacob, appears to have impressed Neil this summer, who added. 'I like what I see. What he has done so far he has done well and his reward is to get some first team involvement. Someone like Jacob has done particularly well and that is why he has been with us.'