Moritz Leitner has revealed his agent is working on various 'exciting projects' which he hopes will bring his Norwich City exile to an end this month.

All that Canaries fans have seen of the 28-year-old recently is the former Borussia Dortmund midfielder promoting lentil chips, playing in the snow and working on his fitness back in Germany, via his Instagram feed.

His last involvement for the Canaries was being an unused substitute on three occasions once the Premier League season had resumed in June after its three-month suspension, including for the FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Manchester United at Carrow Road.

Leitner said: “My agent is in contact with various associations, there are exciting projects and discussions. But we should only talk about it in concrete terms when there are facts to report. This is also what I understand by professionalism.

“Of course I’m dying to be back on the pitch, but as someone who has been involved in professional football for a long time, I’ve learned to deal with situations like this.

“The day will soon come when I can help a team again. I’m really looking forward to it and will do everything for it.”

The former Germany Under-21 captain had made nine top-flight appearances at the start of the last campaign, having played an influential role in the first half of the Championship title winning season in 2018-19, prior to injury knocking him off course.

He returned to prominence after promotion, initially, dominating midfield as City beat Newcastle 3-1 in their first Carrow Road game following promotion.

However, after being moved into a more attacking midfield position in October, Leitner was taken off at half-time of a 3-1 defeat to Manchester United.

His only further appearance was playing all of a 4-2 win at Preston in the FA Cup last January - over a year ago.

“Every club has the right to make individual plans with regard to the deployment of its players and to make appropriate decisions,” Leitner continued, speaking to Press Association Sport.

“I had three great years in Norwich, the promotion to the Premier League, to which I contributed, experience in the Premier League, there were a few real highlights.

“I have had a lot of great experiences in England from which I will benefit greatly in the future. The move to the Canaries at that time was a very good decision for me – I would make it again.

“I still have a valid contract with Norwich until the summer of next year, so we will find a good solution together. Of course, I want to win games with a team again and be successful on the pitch. This is my passion.”

Leitner has scored twice in 53 games since signing permanently from Augsburg in the summer of 2018, following an initial loan spell - one of which was a derby day equaliser at Ipswich, an excellent long-range strike midway through the second half of a1-1 draw at Portman Road in September 2018.

However, like Josip Drmic and Tom Trybull, he wasn't given a squad number following relegation, as sporting director Stuart Webber and head coach Daniel Farke set about refreshing their squad.

Trybull joined Blackburn on loan for the season and Norwich have pressed on, leading the Championship table by four points at the halfway stage of the season.

The PA Sport report adds a claim that Rovers are having to pay just £2,000 of Trybull's £22,000 weekly wage although we understand that figure is based upon his Premier League salary and that the German's wages would have dropped as a result of relegation.

Drmic and Leitner remain out in the cold though, with both under contract until 2022 and sure to be on decent wages as well.

Both played in an U23 game at Colney in September, Leitner playing the opening 45 minutes of a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace in Premier League Two, with Drmic scoring.

However, even when City's injury crisis was at its peak in November and December, Farke resisted bringing either player back into the fold.

He said: "We won’t do this because it’s not a topic right now. We had to make a decision, it was not like we had this decision this summer because they were poor players or something like this."

There have been no reports linking Drmic or Leitner with any clubs recently, although Drmic has vented his frustrations about being left out in the cold as he has conducted interviews recently, as the Switzerland striker discusses his next move.