Goalkeeper Keylor Navas has completed a deadline day move to Nottingham Forest.
The Costa Rica international will spend the second half of the season on loan at the City Ground from PSG. He follows Gustavo Scarpa, Danilo, Chris Wood, Felipe and Jonjo Shelvey in linking up with Steve Cooper’s squad this month.
The Reds were keen to bring in goalkeeping reinforcements during the transfer window following an injury to Dean Henderson. The Manchester United loanee is expected to be sidelined for between four to five weeks after suffering a thigh problem during the victory over Leicester City earlier this month.
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Wayne Hennessey stepped in for Henderson in the Premier League game against Bournemouth and in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Manchester United last week, with Jordan Smith as back-up on the bench. But with Henderson likely to be out for a while and with some key matches ahead, Forest wanted to bring in another shot-stopper before the deadline.
Navas arrives at the City Ground with great pedigree. Prior to joining PSG in 2019, he made more than 100 league appearances for Real Madrid, where he won the Champions League three times.
He also counts Levante, Albacete and Saprissa as his former clubs. And he has notched up more than 100 caps for his country, including featuring at last year’s World Cup in Qatar.
The 36-year-old has found himself out of favour at his parent side this season, however. He is said to have been keen on making the switch to England in search of regular game time, but it took some doing to get a deal which was on and off in the build-up to the deadline over the line.
Head coach Cooper spoke earlier this week of the aim to end the transfer window with sufficient strength in depth for the second half of the season. He said: "Like any transfer window, you want the window to close with the squad in a stronger place than when it started. What's been slightly unfortunate for us, both before and during the window, is we’ve picked up injuries and some illnesses as well. That has added to the jigsaw of trying to put the squad together.
“We had some clear plans going into the window. Some of them are things we’ve tried to complete, but there has been some added stuff because of the injuries.
“The objective, always, is to try to make the squad stronger, have the right balance and depth, and improve the team. Any manager would say the same.”
Of the possibility of signing a goalkeeper, Cooper had previously spoken about how the club were weighing up the decision. He had indicated that if they did decide to “make a change”, “it’s got to be right”.
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