Here are your Nottingham Forest headlines for the morning of Monday, 16 May.
Worrall linked with Leicester
Nottingham Forest’s talented defender Joe Worrall is a possible summer target for Leicester City, it has been claimed.
The 25-year-old defensive mainstay is currently making his own bid for Premier League football with his home town club who are in pole position to make the Championship play-off final, with Forest just two games away from a top flight return.
Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers, meanwhile, is desperate to sort out his defensive issues and, according to the The Sun, has Worrall on his radar as a possible summer capture at the King Power Stadium.
The Reds, however, are hoping to keep their best players together at the City Ground, particularly if they gain promotion back to the top flight this month.
Forest injury update
Nottingham Forest have no fresh injury worries as they prepare for Tuesday night’s play-offs semi-final second leg.
The Reds take a 2-1 advantage over Sheffield United into the return fixture at the City Ground. Goals from Jack Colback and Brennan Johnson put them in control at Bramall Lane on Saturday, only for missed chances and Sander Berge’s late header to keep the tie alive.
Forest were boosted by the return of Keinan Davis in South Yorkshire, with the striker making his comeback from off the bench after being sidelined with a hamstring injury since last month’s defeat at Luton Town. They are, however, still without fellow forward Lewis Grabban (hamstring) and full-back Max Lowe (groin) - albeit the latter would have been ineligible to feature against his parent club anyway.
And head coach Steve Cooper did have a couple of other injury concerns prior to taking on the Blades. Jack Colback and Ryan Yates had missed the last game of the regular season, at Hull City, with groin and shoulder problems, respectively.
Heckingbottom tries to get in Reds' heads
Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom looks to be trying to play mind games with Nottingham Forest ahead of the second leg of their Championship play-offs semi-final.
Steve Cooper's Reds hold a 2-1 lead going into the second leg at the City Ground on Tuesday night. They looked set to claim a two-goal advantage, leading 2-0 entering the dying stages of the first leg at Bramall Lane thanks to goals from Jack Colback and Brennan Johnson.
But Sander Berge scored for the Blades in injury time to halve Forest's lead.
Heckingbottom claims that goal changed the Reds' whole body language - and he also thinks Forest may have to handle an "edgier atmosphere" at the City Ground.
“It’s half time, there’s still loads to go,” Heckingbottom said.
U23s bow out of play-offs
Nottingham Forest suffered a 2-0 play-off semi-final defeat to Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium to end their Under-23s campaign.
It seemed almost inevitable that the young Potters would win after Forest attacking midfielder Ateef Konate was shown a straight red card on 14 minutes for lashing out at Jack Griffiths. The Potters midfielder received a yellow card for his initial trip on the Forest man.
George Shelvey produced arguably the performance of his career as he produced several top class saves to keep out efforts from Will Goodwin, D’Margio Wright-Phillips and Emre Tezgel either side of half-time. But the Forest shot-stopper could do nothing to stop Griffiths from heading into the back of the net on 75 minutes after a pinpoint cross from Edward Jones.
The away side sent players bombing forwards as the game went into stoppage time and Goodwin eventually grabbed the goal his performance deserved as he took advantage of the Forest overload by slotting past Shelvey when one-on-one.
