Hughton confirms new boy blow

Chris Hughton has confirmed that Norwich's new signing Steven Whittaker will miss the start of the season due to an ankle injury.

The Canaries chief confirmed the news after watching his side draw 1-1 against Dutch giants Ajax at Carrow Road when Anthony Pilkington's seventh-minute free-kick was cancelled out by Lasse Schone's long-range effort after 30 minutes.
Whittaker watched the game with a protective boot on his left foot after suffering the ligament problem during last week's 1-0 friendly win at Celtic. And Hughton revealed that the Scotland international will not be ready to feature in the Premier League curtain-raiser at Fulham on August 18.
"Steven will be a few weeks," said Hughton to the media following the Ajax friendly.
"The good thing is it could have been worse and you do fear when a player goes over on an ankle and it is as sore as it was at the time he did it.
"The good news is it is nothing more than recovery. It doesn't need any type of surgery or operation but it will be a matter of weeks.
"It's just a little bit of ligament damage. I don't think he'll be ready for the start of the season. We are talking weeks, so not for the start of the season."
Meanwhile, Hughton has also admitted that midfielder David Fox will also unlikely to be fit for the start of the new season having failed to feature so far this summer due to a knee problem.
He added: "With David he is a little bit slow in his recovery, but we are hoping he will train with the group Thursday or Friday and we will push him on from there. He has missed all of the pre-season so far. Although he has been doing some good running, regarding his ball work with the team he is a few weeks behind."