Steve Cooper says it's 'unlikely' that Brennan Johnson will feature for Nottingham Forest when they welcome Newcastle United to the City Ground on Friday night.
Johnson was replaced in the 67th minute of Forest's 3-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend after sustaining a groin injury.
Although Johnson has been named in the latest Wales squad, he has since had a scan, and Cooper admits there is only a 'small chance' he will be available.
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"The scan tells you something but you have to treat the player. It’s unlikely that Brennan will be involved at the weekend but there’s a small chance," Cooper said in his pre-match press conference.
"We want to give him every chance to see if he’s available and if he is, great, if not it’s just one of those things. I’m not completely ruling him out but at the same time when you walk off with a muscle injury it can take a bit longer than a week to recover."
Johnson was replaced by Newcastle loanee Chris Wood, who also forced off with an injury. However, the New Zealand international would've been ineligible to face his parent club regardless.
"Chris wouldn't have been able to play anyway through injury, but he wouldn't have been eligible to play with the registration with the loan."
Elsewhere, Moussa Niakhate and Ryan Yates have been back in training in recent weeks, while former West Ham and Crystal Palace midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate returned to full training this week.
Yates missed four games due to illness but has come off the bench in each of Forest's previous two matches in the Premier League. Niakhate has been out since August but was an unused substitute in the defeat at Tottenham, while Kouyate has not featured since November due to a hamstring injury.
Cooper could not confirm whether Yates or Niakhate will be ready to start against Newcastle, but the game will come too early for Kouyate.
"Players have been back in training. Moussa Niakhate for example, [Ryan] Yates has been coming on and giving us as much as he's been permitted to. But they are getting stronger as weeks go on," Cooper added.
"Whether they are quite ready to start of the game. Cheikhou [Kouyate] is back in training. He did a little bit of part-time training last week, and more full training this week, but he's been out for a good few months.
Forest will be without Scott McKenna (hamstring), Dean Henderson (muscle), Gustavo Scarpa (personal reasons) and Taiwo Awoniyi (groin) until after the international break. Willy Boly (hamstring), Giulian Biancone (knee) and Omar Richards (leg) are long-term absentees.
Nottingham Forest predicted XI (4-3-2-1): Navas; Aurier, Worrall, Felipe, Lodi, Freuler, Shelvey, Mangala; Gibbs-White, Lingard; Dennis.
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