Nottingham Forest injury crisis deepens before Newcastle visit

Nottingham Forest went out of the Europa League after a 4-0 loss to Aston Villa in the semi-final second leg at Villa Park, and the 1-0 first-leg lead was wiped out. But the bigger issue for Vitor Pereira is the state of his squad, because he says Forest went into that game with only three players in condition to play from the bench and does not know whether several key men will be ready for Newcastle.

Why Pereira is so short of options

Pereira was blunt about the scale of the problem. "If you look at our bench today, we brought three players in condition to play - Lorenzo Lucca, Dilane Bakwa and Ryan Yates," he said, before adding: "Aina out. Dan Ndoye out. Sangare out. Callum out. Murillo out. Morgan out. It is too much. I don't know if some of them can recover for the next match."

That is the part of the night that matters most for Forest. Morgan Gibbs-White has made 35 Premier League appearances this season, and his 6.89 rating points to how important he has been. Ibrahim Sangaré has played 26 league matches. Take out those kinds of established players, then add the knock to Murillo and the facial injury Gibbs-White sustained in Monday's 3-1 win over Chelsea, and the bench problems become hard to ignore.

Pereira also said Forest had one less day to recover than Aston Villa before the second leg. That matters in a tight schedule, but he was clear that the basic issue was availability. He summed it up neatly: "To compete in a semi final and against a team like Aston Villa, we need everyone in the conditions to compete."

What it means before Newcastle

Forest now turn to the Premier League meeting with Newcastle, and Pereira cannot yet say who will recover in time. The league table gives the game some added weight too, with Forest 16th on 42 points.

Newcastle beat Brighton 3-1 in their most recent Premier League match, but their last five league results still read WLLLL, so this is not a fixture coming against a side in runaway form. Newcastle are 13th after 35 matches, and they also have their own injury questions, with Lewis Miley out after suffering a broken leg in training, Fabian Schär ruled out of the Forest trip with a foot infection, and Valentino Livramento still "not close" to returning because of a thigh injury.

For Forest, though, the immediate concern is simpler. They need bodies back before Sunday, and Pereira has already said he does not know if the players missing from Villa Park will recover in time.