Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper insists he is not yet thinking about the possibility of being without Djed Spence in the play-offs.
Indeed, the Welshman says the Reds are not “worried” about who they could come up against in the battle to reach Wembley and secure the final promotion spot. Heading into the final round of fixtures this weekend, it will be two from Sheffield United, Luton Town, Middlesbrough and Millwall to join Forest and Huddersfield Town in the semi-finals.
Should Cooper’s side end up meeting Boro, Spence - who has been a star performer in the Garibaldi - would be ineligible to feature against his parent club. However, the Reds head coach says looking at potential solutions will not come into his thinking for naming his team to face Hull City in the last game of the regular season on Saturday.
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“We’ll cross those bridges if they come. We’re not going into the Hull game thinking about who we play in the play-offs, I promise you,” Cooper said.
“We have shown this year how good a team we are. I want myself, the players, the supporters and all the staff to feel really positive about how good a form we’re in, how strong the confidence is, and how much we love being at this football club.
“We’re only focusing on ourselves and who we are when those play-offs come. Everything else is not really worth talking about.
“The reality is, whether we finish third or fourth - and we want to finish third - we are not looking at who we get in the play-offs. We are only bothered about our approach. We don’t really mind who we play, we are just focusing on ourselves.
“I talk a lot about sticking to the plan and controlling what you’re in control of. I think these tense affairs - we’ve just played one (against Bournemouth), and we’ve definitely got a few coming up - is the time to do what you do more than ever.
“My experiences of play-offs so far have been that teams who don’t change their way and who continue to be the best version of themselves are the ones who have performed well and ultimately succeeded. That’s what we’ve got to aim to do. We’ve got ourselves into this position because we’ve done it a certain way, so there’s absolutely no need to change.”
