Valerien Ismael provides fitness update on Barnsley FC trio Yorkshire News

Kitching has yet to appear since arriving in January from Forest Green due to a groin injury, but he showed up for the Reds’ U23s against Cardiff City on Monday.

Meanwhile, Ismael confirmed that midfielder Herbie Kane will be missing again, but is hoping to be available for his team’s play-off campaign, which begins Monday of the week.

Kane, who joined the club from £ 1.25 million from Liverpool in October, has been sidelined by an ankle problem he suffered in the last training session before the home game with Sheffield Wednesday on 20 March and is they have lost the last seven club games.

Dominic Frieser, who has missed the last two games with a hamstring problem in the derby win at Huddersfield Town on April 21, is available again this weekend.

Ismael said: “Herbie was part of the training (on Thursday), so he has taken a step forward. But the (Norwich) game is too early for him and we hope he can join the team next week. This is the plan.

“LIam Kitching is good and has trained well. He played last Monday with the U23 and played 45 minutes and we are very happy that he is back.

“His response after the game was good and he feels very good and he has returned to training with the team and it could be someone else who is available for the squad (against Norwich), we’ll see.

“Friesy will be on the team and available and everything is on the plan and she came back in the middle of the week. He did all the tests and has trained since Wednesday with the team and nothing happens. We are delighted to have one more (forward) option. “

Ismael has promised that he will not give the players rest to keep them fresh for the play-offs, despite the fact that he does not play in his last match of the league season against the Canary Islands, led by his good friend Daniel Farke.

He added: “We want to prepare for the first leg (of the play-off semi-final) and we have to keep up. It’s important to guys, that’s the first thing.

“The second thing is that we have enough time between games and we are a team whose players need to keep up and I think we have seen so far that it works very well with a focus on how we play and not ‘I don’t want to change too much.

“Guys need to find a rhythm before a new competition.”