Newsletter

Get your daily update and weekly newsletter by signing up today!

News

Massive boost for Newcastle United as Nottingham Forest injuries stack up

1 year ago
Share

There were three more Nottingham Forest injuries at the weekend.

Steve Cooper already dealing with injuries to Willy Boly, Scott McKenna, Dean Henderson, Taiwo Awoniyi, Giulian Biancone, Omar Richards and Cheikhou Kouyate before the game away at Tottenham.

Of those seven, only Kouyate appearing to have any chance at all of being available for the Newcastle United match on Saturday.

Worse was to follow though, because as well as losing 3-1 at Tottemham, three more Nottingham Forest injuries.

Steve Cooper talking to Nottinghamshire Live after Saturday’s defeat:

“Wayne Hennessy felt his knee, so he wasn’t able to go on the bench.

“Brennan Johnson has come off with a groin strain; we don’t know how bad it is yet, we’ll see how he is in the next day or two.

“He has been a really important player for us, but we’ll see how he is. Let’s see when it settles down, see what the scan says, and fingers crossed it’s not as severe as these injuries can be.

“Woody [Chris Wood] was just so unfortunate. He goes on, and in his first moment in the game he gets a really bad knock to his thigh which really swells up instantly like you wouldn’t believe.

“He tried to carry on with it, but it was just impossible. When he came to the halfway line and I saw it, I knew he wouldn’t be able to carry on, even though he tried. That was really unfortunate.”

Nottingham Forest have conceded 47 Premier League goals this season, only Bournemouth (51) have conceded more.

However, it is arguably scoring goals that is now looking an even more daunting issue for Forest.

As things stand, they have only scored 21 Premier League goals this season, just one more than the very lowest total for any PL club.

Those 21 Premier League goals have come from:

7 Brennan Johnson

4 Taiwo Awoniyi

2 Morgan Gibbs-White,

1 Chris Wood, Joe Worrall, Lewis O’Brien, Sam Surridge, Cheikhou Kouyate, Serge Aurier, Emmanuel Dennis (Plus one own goal)

Brennan Johnson has undoubtedly been Forest’s best player and biggest goal threat this season, scoring seven of the twenty goals scored by Forest players.

With a groin issue picked up at the weekend, very difficult to see any chance of Steve Cooper risking their star player, even if scans show nothing really serious. After facing Newcastle, Forest then play two relegation rivals in quick succession – Wolves at home on Saturday 1 April and Leeds away on Tuesday 4 April.  If Johnson’s injury isn’t too bad, he would have three weeks to recover if not facing Newcastle.

With Taiwo Awoniya already definitely ruled out, that leaves two goal Morgan Gibbs-White as the biggest PL goalscorer available. Chris Wood is on loan from Newcastle so couldn’t have played on Friday anyway.

So out of this season’s goalscorers, Steve Cooper is likely only to have Gibbs-White (2), Worrall (1), Aurier (1), Surridge (1) and Dennis (1) available to potentially start.

Lewis O’Brien (1) is set to join DC United and Cheikhou Kouyate (1) has been out since November so very unlikely to be considered as a starter, even if passed fit for Friday’s matchday squad.

It is a massive boost for Newcastle United to especially have Brennan Johnson set to miss, he looks a real prospect and in the past Newcastle have been one of numerous clubs to be credited with interest.

Reading comments from Forest fans ahead of the match, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of positivity, with the Johnson injury a real downer.

As for Newcastle United, difficult not to see this as a huge opportunity to follow up Sunday’s win over Wolves.

To get successive wins heading into this international break would be a real boost to top four hopes.

Complete Newcastle United match and live TV schedule so far confirmed up to end of April 2023:

Friday 17 March 2023 – Nottingham Forest v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports

Sunday 2 April 2023 – Newcastle United v Man U (4.30pm) Sky Sports

Wednesday 5 April 2023 – West Ham v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 8 April 2023 – Brentford v Newcastle (3pm)

Saturday 15 April 2023 – Aston Villa v Newcastle (12.30pm) BT Sport

Sunday 23 April 2023 – Newcastle v Tottenham (2pm) Sky Sports (***Could still be moved again)

Thursday 27 April 2023 – Everton v Newcastle (7.45pm) BT Sport

Sunday 30 April 2023 – Newcastle v Southampton (2pm)

Share

If you would like to feature on The Mag, submit your article to contribute@themag.co.uk

Have your say

© 2024 The Mag. All Rights Reserved. Design & Build by Mediaworks