One of Everton's likely relegation rivals have been dealt a blow by the Premier League itself.
Nottingham Forest had been confident of registering Steve Cook in their 25-man-squad, after suffering a defensive crisis, but their application has not been approved by the league.
But according to manager Steve Cooper, that two-times European Cup winners will now appeal the decision in the hope of getting an agreement for the former Bournemouth player over the line.
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Cooper had hope to have been able to include 31-year-old in his squad for Forest's 1-1 draw with Manchester City on Saturday, but was unable took after the application was rejected. However, Forest have not given up on their quest.
As per The Athletic, Cooper said: “We applied and it got rejected, so now we’ve appealed. We can’t understand why it’s been rejected, looking at the rules and some things which have gone on in previous years. We’re hopeful the appeal is successful.
“When you read the rules and you look at it, then yes, we were surprised (that their application was rejected). Maybe I shouldn’t have sounded as confident as I did, but it’s happened before on many occasions.
“There’s a lot of things I could say, but I’m not going to. We’ll remind them of the rules they wrote, and hopefully we’ll be OK with it. Fingers crossed.”
Forest's situation has come around as a result of an injury crisis and a failed loan move. Willy Boly and Scott McKenna both succumbed to hamstring injuries against Fulham last week, with for former expected to be out for around three months and the latter sidelined for around six weeks.
Cook had been left out of the Nottingham squad as he was expected to complete a loan move to Luton Town in January, but the deal did not come to pass, leaving him in no man's land.
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