Kenny McLean needs a Norwich City play-off tilt to stand any chance of a return this season from a knee ligament injury.

The Scottish midfielder is out for ‘six to eight’ weeks, according to his head coach David Wagner, after picking up the injury in the closing stages of the recent Championship home defeat to Sheffield United.

McLean was absent for the Good Friday win at Blackburn that was marred by a fresh pair of injuries to centre backs Grant Hanley (Achilles) and Ben Gibson (hamstring).

Hanley must now await the results of a scan this weekend to assess how long he is sidelined with his Scottish international team mate.

“Kenny has a serious knee ligament injury that will put him out for the next six to eight weeks,” said Wagner, who confirmed at Ewood Park the midfielder does not require surgery.

“It would be great to see him in this season again in City shirt, because this would mean we will make the play-offs. But the regular season for him, no.

The Pink Un:
“With Grant, what I can say? it’s an Achilles injury. But how bad we can’t say at the minute because he has to have investigations and a scan, but if he was not able to carry on, and with the pain he had, it looked quite serious.

“Gibbo pulled his hamstring and couldn’t continue. This takes normally longer than only a week. We had Jaden (Warner) from the academy with us as a spare man in our squad because we were not sure about Onel (Hernandez) after the warm up.

“We have injury problems for Monday, this is not a secret, and we will work to find the right solutions. This is what we always have done and I have every trust and belief in this group of players. We will invest everything on Monday again.”

Hernandez returned after an ankle injury but had heavy strapping on his right foot when he joined the rest of the squad on the Ewood Park pitch at the final whistle.

Wagner does have experienced duo Sam Byram and Isaac Hayden back in training after long term injury absences.

“Sam Byram is back, roughly 10 days in training, Isaac Hayden hads now had a week with us, and hopefully they can train over the weekend,” said the City chief. “Maybe they can help on Monday, or at least against Middlesbrough, we will see. Two experience pros, they know the game, they know the Championship as well.

“Sometimes in these situations you can find an interesting story, with players for whatever reason who we’re not able to help a lot in this season. But to turn a season, which looks very disappointing, to an exciting end, football can throw up strange stories.”