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George Bennett

Nottingham Forest key man 'unlikely' to face Newcastle United amid Chris Wood loan clarity

Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper says Brennan Johnson is unlikely to feature against Newcastle United, but has not ruled him out completely.

Johnson sustained a groin injury in Forest's 3-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday and had to be replaced after 67 minutes.

The Wales international has since had a scan to determine the severity of the injury, and Forest boss Cooper has offered an update.

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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 via BBC Sport.

"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.

"It would be disappointing [if Johnson can't play] but these things do happen. We’d love all of our players to be available and vying for a position to be in the team, but unfortunately on that front it hasn’t gone so well in the last couple of months.

"As I always say, you have to focus on the guys that are available to play and they are getting maximum attention from myself and the staff and full support as well."

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."

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