
Nuno Espirito Santo says Nottingham Forest are hopeful Chris Wood, Taiwo Awoniyi and Anthony Elanga could return to face Everton — but that Ola Aina will not be available.
The Forest manager says the club will assess the attacking trio tomorrow (Friday) to gauge their fitness as they recover from a hip injury, a hamstring problem and an unidentified strain, respectively.
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But Nuno did confirm that defender Aina will miss a second game with the calf problem he sustained during the 1-0 win over Manchester United at the start of the month.
“They (Wood, Awoniyi and Elanga) are struggling with problems — some small, some not so small — but we have to assess them. We have one more day and then we will see if they can be available for the game,” said Nuno.
“We are (hopeful) on all of them. It can be all of them or it can be none, we don’t know. It depends on how they recover and how they feel.”
Wood, Forest’s 18 goal top-scorer, was injured on international duty with New Zealand. When Awoniyi suffered a hamstring issue in the game against United, it left Forest without a recognised forward for the 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa last weekend.

Awoniyi missed last weekend’s loss to Aston Villa (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
“We miss all the players when they are not available. Chris has been giving us so many things. Unfortunately, the situation with T (Awoniyi) happened at the same time. If that hadn’t happened, I think we would have been more balanced. But now we have the absence of two strikers, it is more difficult to prepare,” said Nuno.
“Many of the players are not playing in their usual positions so they are trying to adapt to different situations, but this is what it is about. It happens to other teams and it happens to us now. We have to fix it.”
Forest will be boosted by the return of the on loan defender Alex Moreno, who was not eligible to play against his parent club last weekend.
With Aina still missing, the return of the left-back could be well timed, as it would give Nuno the option of switching to his preferred back four formation against Everton on Saturday.
“For this game, no, unfortunately not,” said Nuno, when asked if Aina would be available for the game. “For the next one, we hope. It is going to be assessing day by day. He spends I don’t know how many hours at the training ground, receiving treatment, so we are trying to have him back as soon as possible.”
(Carl Recine/Getty Images)
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