Nottingham Forest have been boosted by the return of Lewis Grabban to training as they head towards the season’s run-in.
The Reds return to action after the international break with a trip to Blackpool on Saturday. And with 10 games to go, they are pushing for a spot in the top-six.
Striker Grabban has been absent since the end of January with an ankle injury. The clash with the Seasiders may be too soon for his comeback, but boss Steve Cooper is hopeful he can have a big part to play in the final weeks of the campaign. However, the Welshman is still without defenders Max Lowe (groin), Steve Cook (ankle) and Scott McKenna (hamstring).
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“Lewis has been back in training in the last couple of days,” Cooper said. “Obviously we have to be careful with him, because he had quite a bad ankle injury.
“It’s great to see him. He’s the captain and is one of the senior players. Hopefully he features soon.
“We didn’t pick up anything over the international break and everyone came through the Liverpool game unscathed. We’re as we were, just Lewis is the one back with us.
“Maybe Saturday comes a bit too soon. We’ve got a lot of games coming up and we have to manage players as individuals very carefully; they are all at different stages, some have played a lot of games and some have played very little, so we very much have to focus on individual programmes.
“Lewis’ is that he’s returning from injury. When the other boys return from injury as well, we’ll have to be careful with them.
“He’s looking sharp, I have to say. And it’s great he’s back. It’s given everybody a little bit of a boost, having him back outside with us.”
