Norwich City: Clement welcomes World Cup trio return | Eastern Daily Press

Philippe Clement was pleased with the dominant display his side produced in their 2-0 victory over Fulham, as Anis Ben Slimane, Jose Cordoba and Kenny McLean got their first minutes of pre-season.

The trio joined up with their team-mates for the five-day training camp in the capital after representing their respective nations at this summer's World Cup in North America. However, Clement opted against using them in Wednesday's goalless draw with AFC Wimbledon.

With more players set to return, including Ali Ahmed and Mo Toure reporting back for duty this weekend and Ante Crnac and Papa Amadou Diallo edging closer to fitness, the City chief is pleased to see more options coming back into the fold.

“Yes, of course. Very important (to get the World Cup contingent minutes),” said Clement, speaking to club channels at Motspur Park.

“Also, hopefully a few injured players can come back in the next few weeks with Papa and Ante, so that will raise levels as well.

“Again, Mo is back. Ali is back. They came back yesterday. Normally, they would have had recovery because they had long flights, but they wanted to have a session, or a light session, to be ready for today.

“Today is a heavy session. The team is in a really good place, and it’s been an amazing training camp, I have to say. There’s been a lot of hard work and two good games.

“A really good atmosphere in the team. Everybody united. Everybody fighting for each other. And also, a lot of fun between each other, so I’m really pleased about the training camp.”

Clement is hopeful Crnac could feature for the Under-21s at Boreham Wood next Friday night, which would mark his first minutes since suffering an ACL injury against Derby County last October.

“Yes, but of course, he’s been out for 10 months, so we need to be realistic with that,” he admitted.

Ante Crnac could feature in City's academy game next Friday evening (Image: Martyn Haworth/Focus Images Ltd)

“We’re going to look next week when he starts to do more things with the group. He has now done two training parts with the group, and we need to create more movement in the chaos, more and more.

“So don’t expect him directly with the first team. I think his next step will be with the second team to get minutes there after 10 months out, so that’s the plan.

“But we need to see how it goes next week first.”