Nottingham Forest defender Omar Richards has suffered a “little bit of a setback” in his recovery from injury.
The left-back joined the Reds in the summer in a £10million move from Bayern Munich. But he is yet to make his debut for the club, having suffered a hairline fracture of the leg.
At the start of last month, he took a significant forward step, being involved in part-training for the first time after doing rehabilitation work on the grass. He also travelled to Greece with his teammates for a winter camp during the World Cup break, although he did not train with the group.
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Asked if Richards is close to being involved in training, head coach Steve Cooper said ahead of next week’s return to Premier League action: “No, he’s not quite with us yet. He is still progressing, but the latter stages of that return to grass is a bit slow, so the answer to the question is ‘no’.
“He had a little bit of a setback last week. It was nothing major, but it has just set him back a little bit. We’re having to be patient.”
Forest also have Moussa Niakhate, Cheikhou Kouyate (both hamstring) and Giulian Biancone (ACL) as long-term absentees. But Cooper is “hopeful” Wayne Hennessey, Serge Aurier and Morgan Gibbs-White will be fit for Tuesday night’s clash against Manchester United at Old Trafford, with the trio having missed the Carabao Cup victory over Blackburn Rovers.
During the training camp in Greece, Cooper had said: “Omar is out here, so he’s not far off. He hasn’t trained with the group yet; it will be another couple of weeks.
“Giulian is a long-term injury, although I did see a nice video of him taking his first steps after surgery. He sent it to me, saying he wanted me to be one of the first to see it, which was nice.
“Moussa is further down the line. He’ll hopefully be getting close to the next stage of his rehab in the next few weeks.”
The injury situation will have an impact on the club's plans for the January transfer window, with Cooper explaining: “What’s worth saying with us is, unfortunately we picked up a long-term injury at the World Cup, in Cheikhou. Moussa Niakhate is still not back with us and neither is Omar Richards, and they are players we hoped would have been close to returning by now. We have to take all of that into account."
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