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Official Nottingham Forest injury update ahead of playing Newcastle United

1 year ago
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We have had an official Nottingham Forest injury update.

The official update delivered by Steve Cooper on Wednesday afternoon.

This comes 48 hours ahead of Forest’s home game against Newcastle United.

Official Nottingham Forest injury update delivered by Steve Cooper – Wednesday 15 March:

‘Steve Cooper has confirmed that Brennan Johnson is unlikely to feature in Friday night’s fixture against Newcastle United at The City Ground.

The forward picked up a groin injury in last weekend’s 3-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur and was replaced in the 67th minute by Chris Wood.

Johnson, who was named in the Wales squad for their upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers, had a scan on Monday and is unlikely to feature against the Magpies on Friday night.

“He had his scan,” Cooper said. “It’s unlikely that he will be involved at the weekend but he has a small chance.

“We’re not completely ruling him out, but when you walk off with a muscle injury it can take a bit longer than a week to recover.

“Moussa [Niakhate] is back in training, Yatesy has been coming on and has been giving us as much as he has been permitted to. They’re getting stronger as weeks go by, but whether they’re ready for starts, I’m not too sure.

“We’re hopeful of getting players back during the international break because that will make us stronger.”

The Head Coach also confirmed that Chris Wood will be missing through the injury he also picked up against Spurs.

Cheikhou Kouyaté, meanwhile, has returned to training as he edges closer to a return to action. The midfielder has been missing since November with a hamstring injury he picked up in the FIFA World Cup with Senegal.’

As well as those injury issues outlined above, Steve Cooper already dealing with injuries to Willy Boly, Scott McKenna, Dean Henderson, Taiwo Awoniyi, Giulian Biancone and Omar Richards.

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 the scans have shown 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 would leave two goal Morgan Gibbs-White as the biggest PL goalscorer available.

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.

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