Nottingham Forest are sweating on the fitness of defender Scott McKenna and attacker Morgan Gibbs-White ahead of Monday’s crunch clash at Leicester City.
The pair were forced to withdraw from international duty, with Scotland and England Under-21s respectively. And they are injury doubts for next week’s trip to the King Power Stadium, when the Reds will be out to stop a run of four successive defeats.
McKenna had played the full 90 minutes in each of Scotland’s victories over Ukraine and Republic of Ireland, and showed no obvious sign of injury. But he pulled out of the national squad, ahead of Tuesday night’s Nations League match against Ukraine in Poland due to a knee strain. Gibbs-White, meanwhile, did not feature for England, withdrawing before games against Italy and Germany, suffering from a foot problem.
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“Scott is a doubt, to be honest. He had to withdraw early from the Scotland camp,” said Forest head coach Steve Cooper. “With regards to Monday, we are still unsure whether he will be available for that.
“Morgan obviously missed out on the England Under-21s. But we are integrating him back into training over the last day or two. We are not completely conclusive on that yet, but we are hoping so.”
Prior to the Reds’ match against Fulham last time out, midfielder Orel Mangala had returned to training after being sidelined with a hamstring issue. However, he suffered a setback in the build-up to that defeat and was not involved.
“He is still recovering. He is not far away, and he is making good progress,” Cooper said.
Striker Emmanuel Dennis had also withdrawn from international duty early. However, he has been training with his teammates ahead of Monday's fixture.
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