1 week Ago
The Czech winger, who City signed from Slavia Prague in January for £5.8m, has played just 82 minutes across two appearances for the club since completing his move to Carrow Road. Despite Thorup insisting there is no injury concern, Jurasek is struggling to adapt to the intensity and physicality of the Championship, ruling him unavailable for matches.
His protracted absence and lack of involvement has been met with frustration and bewilderment from City supporters - and the Dane can sympathise with those sentiments, but refuses to put a date on his potential return to action. "Honestly? I don't really know (when he will be back) because he's struggling 100pc with the intensity and the physicality of the league, but at the moment, there's no injury for us to find. "So, is the timing right? We have to be very, very careful about it.
We're all frustrated about the situation, and he is probably the one who is most frustrated about the situation, but we simply need to find the right timing for us to bring him on. I hope it's Friday, but I'm probably not too optimistic about it. "I'm also frustrated about the situation, because of course we've signed a player from another country, from a good club with big potential and also quality, and if I could bring him on tonight I would have done it," Thorup said after City's draw with Sunderland.
"I also appreciate and accept that there's frustration about the fact that we cannot really give a clear answer and say it's because of this injury or it's because this happened, but we saw after the whole game that he picked up an injury and it took him some time to recover from that injury and to be ready again. Matej Jurasek has played just twice for Norwich City since a January move from Slavia Prague. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd) "He's still struggling with fatigue in his body, he's still struggling to get through training sessions for us, and my best answer to you will be that he's probably not, body-wise, ready for the physicality in the league yet.
"When that's the case, then you have to be really careful about when you bring him on, because if his body is not ready, then the risk of picking up another injury, which is the last thing we need, that risk will become too high. "That's the reason why we don't play him, because I would love to play him, I would love to bring him on the pitch tonight, because he could be one who could change the momentum a little bit towards the end, he could be one who could do something on his own at the end, so 100 per cent I feel you and we are doing everything we can.".
