Brighton given triple injury boost before Nottingham Forest clash but five more remain in doubt
The latest injury news from the opposition camp before Nottingham Forest travel to Brighton in the Premier League
by James Quinlan · NottinghamshireLiveBrighton will be looking to hand further opportunities to a trio of injury returnees when they play Nottingham Forest on Sunday, after using the Carabao Cup to their benefit this midweek.
Whether a lack of cup duties in recent days proves to be to Forest's advantage remains to be seen. On the one hand Nuno Espirito Santo's side will have the fresher legs when they travel to the Amex Stadium, and can take plenty of confidence with them from last weekend's win against Liverpool too.
On the other, through progression into a later round than Nuno's men were able, their next hosts have had the chance to build momentum following the international break and use the occasion to reintegrate players returning from injury into the squad.
As his side saw off the challenge of Wolves to make the competition's last sixteen, head coach Fabian Hurzeler lauded the return of full-back Pervis Estupinan and midfielder Mats Wieffer.
“I'm not only happy for the substitutes, also players who gained some game time today, especially Pervis Estupinan after a long injury but also Mats, who came back after his injury," he said. "You see that they need game time to get back into the rhythm. But on top of that, we had some brilliant individual performances."
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The former was making his first club start since returning from injury before the international break, whilst the latter was making his first substitute appearance after picking up a problem on the opening day of the season. Also making a similar return to his Ecuadorian team-mate was Evan Ferguson, who had been sidelined since early April with an ankle issue, and Hurzeler was also pleased with the signs he displayed in a 63-minute outing vs Wolves.
On the topic of the striker, the coach added: "I think we saw in some situations how good he can be. He had some shots in the first half, he worked hard against the ball. He can't be on the level already that he wants to and like he was before in the Premier League in the prime of his individual performance.
"We will try to get him there, he needs to train at 100 per cent and he needs to use every training sessions to get as fit as possible and then I'm sure that he will help us."
However four Seagulls players remained out of action this midweek and it remains to be seen whether they are able to provide any further boosts to their side or if it will be Forest who can take extra confidence from the situation.
Most likely to return would be Joao Pedro, whose late return from international duty in South America last week meant he has not been risked in either Premier League or Carabao Cup outing since.
But after that, midfielders Solly March, James Milner and £25m summer signing Matt O'Riley are all looking at extended periods out of action and are highly unlikely to return in time for Forest. The latter is a particularly painful miss for the home side having required surgery on a foot injury for a problem picked up nine minutes into his debut last month.
Another summer signing, German winger Brajan Gruda, has also been out of action with a 'small injury', according to Hurzeler, and has therefore been unable to feature for his new club as of yet.