Nottingham Forest given grim Morgan Gibbs-White update before Newcastle United clash
Morgan Gibbs-White did not feature for Nottingham Forest against Aston Villa after suffering a nasty facial injury last weekend.
Nottingham Forest boss Vitor Pereira has revealed Morgan Gibbs-White remains a major doubt for their clash against Newcastle United this weekend.
The England international has spearheaded Forest’s surge towards survival. Gibbs-White’s seven goals in eight Premier League games have given the Tricky Trees a six-point cushion over the drop zone.
However, the 26-year-old suffered a nasty facial injury following a collision with Robert Sanchez last weekend. He returned to the bench as Forest crashed out of the Europa League on Thursday sporting two black eyes and a nasty cut on his forehead.
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Vitor Pereira gives Morgan Gibbs-White update
Speaking after losing 4-0 to Aston Villa, Forest boss Pereira claimed there was never a genuine chance of Gibbs-White playing. Revealing a grim treatment table at the City Ground, he also strongly suggested the talisman could miss the clash with Newcastle on Sunday.
“No, (there was no chance of him playing today),” Pereira told reporters. “Not even for (potential) penalties. Gibbs-White, not in condition. Sangare is not in condition. Dan Ndoye is not in condition. Murillo was not in condition but after, Jair (Cunha) had problems, and we risk a bit, but he’s not in condition.
“There is a lot of players all out. (Ola) Aina, out. Dan Ndoye, out. (Ibrahim) Sangare, out. Callum (Hudson-Odoi), out. Murillo, out. Morgan, out. It is too much. I don’t know if some or one of them can recover for the next match.
“I cannot answer because I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know about Morgan. I don’t know about Ola. Callum is finished for the season. I don’t know about Murillo. Dan, I think Dan maybe can come back. But in the end, I need tomorrow. That’s the day to understand the situation.”
Nottingham Forest switch focus
Forest boss Pereira asked for understanding from supporters as he looked ahead to the Newcastle fixture. He added: “Now it is important to win the battle until the end of the season and then we can think about building something to be back in European competition. We have to play again after three days.
“We played three days ago and we’re playing again three days after this game, and there are teams not in Europe that are playing on Monday. We’ve had a lot of injuries because the players are not machines and they cannot deal with this kind of schedule.
“We had one less day to recover than them, which can make a lot of difference. It was a sad day. But we need to come back stronger and recover to compete against Newcastle United. I hope our supporters understand that the players fought with everything they had. But it was not possible.”
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