'Surprised' Thorup criticises timing of McLean ban

Johannes Hoff Thorup replaced David Wagner as Norwich head coach before this season

Norwich City head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup has criticised the timing of Kenny McLean's latest four-match ban, after hearing the news hours before the start of Tuesday's Championship game at Portsmouth.

Thorup said the club were told their captain was out of the game at 15:00 GMT on Tuesday after the Football Association (FA) confirmed the 32-year-old had been given a retrospective suspension following Saturday's defeat by Queens Park Rangers.

The Canaries captain was given a violent conduct charge for an incident that was not reported by the match officials at the time, which was then upheld by an independent commission.

As it was McLean's second three-game suspension of the season, the usual ban was increased to four.

"I'm very surprised by it because it opens up a window for a completely different competition," Thorup told BBC Radio Norfolk following his side's goalless draw with Pompey.

'Big Brother is watching'

The 35-year-old Dane added: "The FA have decided this is the way they want to go.

"They have opened a door where they can go back in time and take decisions like that and even on gamedays they can present the news to the teams. It's a completely different world to us.

"Everyone was [surprised] but I can't go into details - Big Brother is watching and that's how it is."

Norwich will now be without McLean for Sunday's visit of Burnley, a trip to Sunderland on 21 December and the home game against Millwall on 26 December.

He will be available for the return with QPR on 29 December.

Losing McLean forced Thorup into changing his plans for Fratton Park with Chilean Marcelino Nunez brought in to the side - something the Norwich boss said was "not ideal".

"I don't think I'm giving away too much of our preparation to say Kenny was part of it," Thorup said.

"But at three o'clock we needed to change that and change the line-up and bring a player - Marcelino - on to the pitch, which was not ideal for us because he's had an injury and it's not ideal for him to play another game so close to Saturday.

"But that's the way it is. It's not the way I'm used to working. It's a new world to me and I just have to accept it.

"I think it's a surprise to everyone working with professional footballers in a professional environment that things like this can happen."