Brentford manager Thomas Frank has confirmed that midfielder Christian Norgaard, defender Kristoffer Ajer and goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha will all miss Saturday afternoon’s clash against Nottingham Forest through injury.
Forest travel to the Gtech Community Stadium looking to build on a morale-boosting win over Brighton and Hove Albion this week. The Reds moved out of the relegation zone with a 3-1 home win over the Seagulls, but know that winning again is the only way to guarantee to stay out of the bottom three at the end of the weekend.
The Reds currently sit in 17th place in the table, one point above 18th placed Leicester City and two points ahead of Everton in 19th position. Both Leicester and Everton face each other on Monday night in a game which could also impact Forest.
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However, concentration will be on their own match vs Brentford. Ahead of the game, Frank has given the latest on any injury problems that his squad face.
Talking about Norgaard, who missed the 2-0 win over Chelsea with an Achilles issue, the Brentford boss said: "The latest update is that he will be out for the weekend. We will see and assess him for the rest of the season."
The manager also confirmed that the game will come too early for both Ajer and Strakosha who are both making their way back from injury. The former played 70 minutes for the club’s B-team on Thursday.
"No, it's too early [for Ajer] but it was very nice to see him play last night,” he added. "[Strakosha] will also be out for the weekend but hopefully, hopefully, hopefully he'll be back soon."
Brentford are also expected to be without forward Keane Lewis-Potter and Pontus Janssen who have longer-term injuries.
Forest themselves have a number of injury worries to contend with ahead of the game. Steve Cooper has confirmed that there will be late calls on the fitness of defender Moussa Niakhate and striker Taiwo Awoniyi who both picked up knocks in the win over Brighton.
It has also been confirmed that full-back Neco Williams will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a broken jaw in the same game. He was taken to hospital and has since undergone successful surgery.
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