Norwich boss Philippe Clement has said Josh Sargent will not be leaving the Championship club in January, after claiming the striker made himself unavailable to play in Sunday’s FA Cup third-round win against League Two side Walsall.
United States international Sargent, 25, had started the previous three Championship games for Norwich but was absent from the squad that won 5-1 against the Saddlers at Carrow Road.
Sargent was the subject of interest from clubs during the summer and MLS side Toronto FC have been linked with a move in this window.
Clement said: “Josh sent me a message [on Saturday] evening saying he would not be available because of transfer things in his head.
“This is obviously not something we want, and will have consequences.
“It is something we need to speak about inside the club, but the club has made it really clear to Josh and his agent that he will not be leaving during this transfer window.”
In a separate interview with BBC Radio Norfolk, Clement added: “Josh sent me a text yesterday [Saturday] evening, because he was normally in the selection, that he was not available for this game.
“But I don’t want to make too much attention around that because the guys who were here, they deserve the praise for the performance they did, what they are doing during training sessions and in the games they play, so I want to focus on that.”
Asked whether Sargent had said whether he was injured or if he wanted to leave the club, Clement replied: “That he was not injured. We will talk about this later on in the week, in the club, what to do with that.”
Sargent joined Norwich in August 2021 from German side Werder Bremen and has scored 56 goals for the Canaries in 157 games.
Without him, Norwich were convincing winners against the Saddlers, with Jovon Makama scoring a hat-trick to help the Canaries into round four.
The 21-year-old has overtaken Sargent as Norwich’s top scorer with 12 goals against the American’s eight.
“Jovon is improving a lot,” said Clement. “The staff is working a lot with him, like with the other players, with all the details of how to become better.
“He’s already scored more goals [this season] than he scored last season in the lower league [with Lincoln] and that’s positive.
“He needs to keep this hunger and desire to become better in every detail of his game because he’s still a young player who can learn a lot, but he’s showing good potential and I’m happy about that.”
