Nottingham Forest’s next opponents are sweating on key injury news ahead of Sunday’s clash at the City Ground.
Sabri Lamouchi’s men return to play their first home game in nearly five months – their last outing before lockdown resulting in a miserable 3-0 defeat by Millwall.
The Reds will be looking to secure their first win since to resumption of football, knowing that three points will strengthen their hold on the play-off places and as they hope to close the gap on the automatic spots.
Relegation battlers Huddersfield Town stand in their way on Sunday, the Terriers having got off to a losing start in their opening match of the restart when they lost at home to Wigan Athletic.
That defeat wasn’t helped by the absence of Town’s leading men, Fraizer Campbell (Achilles tendinitis) and Steve Mounie (quad), and their fans are praying for brighter news on the fitness of the strikers ahead to the trip to the City Ground.
Forced to field a makeshift frontline, Karlan Grant - leading scorer though he is - was moved from his normal slot on the left, Arsenal loanee Emile Smith Rowe moved from No.10 to the wing and Juninho Bacuna returned to the starting line-up as the attacking pivot of the midfield.
Manager Danny Cowley has admitted the players - so impressive in the build-up games - just didn’t adapt to produce the necessary goods as they were picked off 2-0 by in-form Wigan.
“We are hoping for next weekend, it would certainly be good if we could get one of them back,” said Cowley, speaking to YorkshireLive.
“We are hoping for both of them back.
“It was hard against Wigan when we lost confidence in our build and we didn’t have a point of reference at the top end of the pitch.
“We had to keep trying to build and trying to play through the thirds and being able to play in.
“We just didn’t execute it well enough on Saturday. We knew what we were doing. We know what Wigan are about, we know they are in a 4-4-2 press.
“We had our patterns, but we just didn’t execute them well enough and that’s a collective issue and we will always take collective responsibility.”
Mounie was in fine form before the lockdown, returning eight goals in his last 14 Championship appearances, and supporters picked him ahead of Campbell in their ExaminerLive selection for the Wigan match.
Campbell has played 28 times this season and, while the last of his two goals came back in November, he has been a willing outlet for the team and largely effective at bringing other players into the attack.
