Nottingham Forest have been hit by further bad news on the injury front, with Morgan Gibbs-White facing a spell on the sidelines.
The attacker was forced off with little more than 15 minutes to go of last week’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg defeat to Manchester United, having suffered an ankle problem. Head coach Steve Cooper says the summer signing is now expected to be ruled out “for a little while”.
Ahead of Wednesday night’s second leg at Old Trafford, which the Reds go into 3-0 down, midfielder Ryan Yates is still struggling with a suspected virus and Jack Colback is also a doubt. Striker Chris Wood is cup-tied but has been hampered by illness, too.
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“Morgan is injured. Everyone saw him limp off and most people would assume he’ll be out for a little while, with the nature of what happened,” Cooper said.
“There’s a bit of illness flying around as well - Jack Colback, Chris Wood has been struggling, although he is cup-tied for Wednesday, and Yatesy is still struggling. We’re going to have to assess all of those things closer to the game.
“There’s a bit of a bug flying around. But, no complaints, we get on with it, and try to prepare as best we can.
“The spirit in the camp has been good. There was a bit of frustration after some of the things we didn’t do very well against United in the first leg, but we have to put that behind us and use it as motivation to improve.”
Forest have had to contend with a lengthy absentee list of late - something which has affected their transfer plans. Dean Henderson (thigh), Taiwo Awoniyi (groin), Cheikhou Kouyate (hamstring), Moussa Niakhate (hamstring), Omar Richards (hairline fracture of the leg) and Giulian Biancone (ACL) are all sidelined.
“It has been unfortunate that you go into a window with certain plans and you can get knocked off track a little bit because of the stuff that’s happened,” Cooper continued. “But in some ways, you can say at least it has happened in the window and not after it.
“You just have to get on with it. Next man up.
“I just work with the players who are available, try to get the best out of them and be ready for the next game. If you start being negative and moaning about situations, it gets even worse in people’s minds.
“We’re really enjoying training and really enjoying trying to improve. We’ve just got to keep that going.”
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