Versatile Gibbs says fitness key to Norwich hopes

Norwich City midfielder Liam Gibbs says the “best ability is availability” over the remaining weeks of the Championship season.

The Canaries have won five of their last six games to move into the top 10 despite a number of injuries including Jovon Makama, Mohamed Toure and Jeffrey Schlupp.

And despite a nine-point gap to Southampton in sixth place, they still have a chance of reaching the play-offs with seven games left.

Gibbs told BBC Radio Norfolk that head coach Philippe Clement has used the international break to work on the conditioning of his players in the hope it will give them an extra edge.

“He always wants us to be the fittest team in the league,” the 23-year-old said.

“We had a short period away from the club – a bit of a mental reset – because the Championship is pretty relentless. We’re now back into a Friday-Monday-Saturday week so we’ve been working hard and trying to get ourselves ready now for Friday’s game [against Portsmouth].”

Versatile Gibbs has made 20 appearances for Norwich this season – his fifth at the club with his contract running until the summer of 2028 – and not all of them in his familiar role.

“The best ability is availability and this season, more than any, I’ve been available for quite a lot of that.

“When injuries do happen, I’ve been there to be able to fill in different roles and do my best for the team,” he said.

“The manager’s been happy with what I’ve been producing and feels he can trust me in different positions – I am a player that likes to study the game, I like to understand every role on the pitch.

“When I’m on the bench, I’m thinking I could be coming on in a number of different positions. It’s something that I do have in my game – I would like to nail more of a cemented role in the team but at the minute, if this is what it looks like, then I’m going to do what I can.”

Following Friday’s game, they will travel to Millwall on Monday before renewing their rivalry with Ipswich Town in the second East Anglia derby of the campaign – this one at Carrow Road on 11 April.

“The manager is very keen on not looking too far ahead, taking one game at a time and hunting the teams above us,” Gibbs added.

“That hasn’t changed, we’re still looking up – we don’t want to be looking at teams below us, we want to be chasing the teams above us and if that means us creeping into the play-offs come the end of the season, that will be that.

“We won’t start chasing things that may or may not be possible, we’re just going to keep going a game at a time.”