Norgaard will start opening game but Pinnock faces lengthy spell out

Brentford boss Thomas Frank says Christian Norgaard will start in next Sunday’s Premier League clash with Leicester City after returning from a knee injury in the pre-season friendly win over Real Betis.

The midfielder played just over an hour in the 1-0 win, having missed much of pre-season.

Both Sergi Canos and Ethan Pinnock have joined Kristoffer Ajer in being  sidelined for the start of the season, however, with Canos battling a hamstring injury and Pinnock out with a knee problem.

“Christian is one of our best players. What a difference and what an impact when he stepped on that pitch,” Frank said.

“It was good to see him out there and I’ll be happy to see him play against Leicester. That’s the thing I can promise. He will start against Leicester.

“Sergi (Canos) has a minor hamstring injury. He got it in pre-season camp. He’s out there running so hopefully he’s back in two to three weeks.

“Ethan Pinnock has a knee injury that he unfortunately got in the pre-season.

“He will be out for the first part of the season. We don’t know how long but instead of putting a big timescale on it, for example I know Sergi I know is two to three weeks.

“I know it’s not two to three weeks, but I know it’s long, long, long. He will be out for the first part of the season.”

Frank also explained that Halil Dervisoglu’s absence was due to the attacker suffering with illness prior to the behind-closed-doors friendly against Arsenal earlier this week.

The 22-year-old spent last season on loan with Turkish side Galatasaray but Frank insists he is in his plans for the upcoming season.

“He’s definitely in our plans,” he said.

“He was very unlucky to actually be vomiting overnight before the Arsenal game, because he didn’t play that one. He was supposed to play 90 minutes there.

“So because he couldn’t do that, it led me to a decision to play him for 90 minutes with the B team because he maybe would have got 15 minutes today or something like that.”