Nottingham Forest have been left sweating on the fitness of Morgan Gibbs-White after Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup defeat to Manchester United.
Just as a significant injury list appeared to be easing slightly, head coach Steve Cooper is now waiting to discover the extent of Gibbs-White’s ankle problem. The summer signing did not look happy when he was forced off with little more than 15 minutes remaining at the City Ground, as the Reds were beaten 3-0 in the first leg of their semi-final.
Forest are without a game this weekend, due to being out of the FA Cup, so are next back in action when they head to Old Trafford for the return tie next Wednesday. They then host Leeds United in the league a few days later, on the Sunday.
READ MORE: Cooper delivers verdict on Forest Carabao Cup defeat to United
READ MORE: How the Reds rated in semi-final first leg against Man United
“He’s got an ankle injury,” Cooper said of Gibbs-White. “I don’t know the extent of it - whether it’s a kick or something else. We’ll see in the next couple of days.
“The look he gave would just have been Morgan coming off the pitch; he hates not playing every minute of every game. It would just be his natural disappointment of coming off.”
Despite the result, Gibbs-White had continued his fine form of recent weeks against United, looking a threat when the hosts had positive spells in the game. He thought he had helped secure an equaliser for his team when he set up Sam Surridge midway through the first half.
A VAR check ruled Surridge had been offside, however, and Wout Weghorst went on to make it 2-0 just before the break, following Marcus Rashford’s opener. If the second was a suckerpunch for Cooper’s side, the third was a killer blow. Bruno Fernandes found the net late on, to leave United in the driving seat to progress to the final.
Jesse Lingard made his comeback from a hamstring injury against his former club. But Ryan Yates missed out with a suspected virus, and the Reds are still without Dean Henderson (thigh), Taiwo Awoniyi (groin), Cheikhou Kouyate (hamstring), Moussa Niakhate (hamstring), Omar Richards (hairline fracture of the leg) and Giulian Biancone (ACL).
What did you make of Forest's performance against United? Have your say in the comments below
READ NEXT
