Norwich City captain Grant Hanley is out for months with a ruptured Achilles confirmed head coach David Wagner after Easter Monday’s 0-0 Championship stalemate against Rotherham.

Hanley and centre back partner Ben Gibson (hamstring) picked up season-ending injuries in the Good Friday win over Blackburn.

Gibson could potentially return for a play-off tilt, but City dropped a place to eighth and remain one point outside the top six after another laboured Carrow Road affair.

Hanley is scheduled to undergo surgery later this week, but Wagner was quick to rule out any prospect of a recall for on-loan central defender Jon Tomkinson, who is at Stevenage.  

“We go with the players which we have available now,” said Wagner. “It is not nice but I said this beforehand, situations like this can really gel a group together and can create an extra boost of energy. The truth is I would love to have everyone healthy and on board. But this isn't the case.

"Grant has a serious Achilles injury, which needs surgery probably this week. This will take time. How long? I think we can say after the surgery, but we must speak about several months in this case, because the surgery is to an interrupted Achilles, and this injury takes quite a long time.

“Ben Gibson has a hamstring injury, which will rule him out for the next four to six weeks, which means it is comparable to Kenny McLean in that he will probably be miss the regular season and could make the play-offs. Johnny Rowe will be back in training (on Tuesday).

"And hopefully, Nacho (Marcelino Nunez) will be back in training end of the week, beginning of next week. I still believe this is a group who can bring us into the play-offs.”

Wagner had mixed feelings after failing to break down the Millers.

“Frustrated because of the result, obviously, yes. But I like to be honest, I'm absolutely positive about the performance the guys have shown,” he said. “The important thing in my job is we keep everybody's head clear. Make sure you judge the result, which was a frustrated one, and judge the  performance, which was good.

“I think in the first 20, 25 minutes you cannot play much better. for sure, we have to score, but we controlled the game as well and had some very good opportunities in the second half. How the players played defensively, how we counter pressed, the passion, the desire, all those things were strong.

"And offensively we created unbelievable, good opportunities, clear cut chances. But we didn't use them. Sometimes we were unlucky, sometimes we were not calm enough. Sometimes we rushed it. And this means that at the end of the day we draw the game and obviously it doesn't feel great and it is frustrating.

"But this was exactly the performance which I wanted, which I expected from us, which I love to see. And this is what we have to focus on.”