Nottingham Forest will make the trip to the King Power Stadium on Monday night to conclude the first week of Premier League football since the international break, and a win would put Steve Cooper’s team in a great position.
Leicester City are the only team in the league table below Forest, and taking all three points from the clash would see the newly-promoted side climb out of the relegation zone into safety, so the game will be hugely important.
In terms of injuries, Moussa Niakhate and Omar Richards remain ruled out of the fixture, however, Orel Mangala is on the road to recovery and could be featured following a thigh injury.
However, the latest injury concerns come from Morgan Gibbs-White and Scott McKenna, with Cooper taking to his pre-match press conference to give an update.
Cooper told the media: “Scott is a doubt, to be honest. He had to withdraw early from the Scotland camp,
“With regards to Monday, we are still unsure whether he will be available for that.”
“Morgan obviously missed out on the England Under-21s. But we are integrating him back into training over the last day or two. We are not completely conclusive on that yet, but we are hoping so.”
With all considered, this is how Football FanCast expects Nottingham Forest to line up against Leicester tonight…
We expect to see four changes to the team that lost to Fulham last month, with Cooper freshening up his starting team.
In the back three, we predict that club captain Joe Worrall will reprise his role in the defence due to the expected absence of McKenna, alongside Willy Boly and Steve Cook who hold onto their places in the backline.
The second change we expect to see is Harry Toffolo in the left wing-back role over Renan Lodi, as he takes his place alongside former Huddersfield Town teammate Lewis O’Brien in midfield with Ryan Yates.
O’Brien will replace 30-year-old Remo Freuler in the centre of the pitch after proving just how important he is to the team when he scored the second goal after coming off the bench against Fulham.
The fourth and final change we expect to see is Jesse Lingard replacing Gibbs-White in the advanced role alongside Taiwo Awoniyi and Brennan Johnson.
The former Manchester United attacker who was hailed “top-class” by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has scored five goals and delivered three assists in his ten appearances against Leicester over his career so far, so it makes perfect sense for Lingard to start against Brendan Rodgers’ side.
