Nottingham Forest welcome Arsenal to the City Ground on Sunday for a big Premier League clash

Nottingham Forest are sweating on the fitness of star man Morgan Gibbs-White for this weekend’s clash with Arsenal.

Striker Igor Jesus had already been ruled out of Sunday’s match at the City Ground (4.30pm kick-off) while long-term absentee Nicolo Savona remains sidelined. Centre-back Nikola Milenkovic could return after missing the 3-1 losses to Crystal Palace due to bone bruising, but losing Gibbs-White would be a blow for the Reds.

Oliver Glasner’s side go into the game on the banks of the Trent looking to bounce back from successive defeats. They are also eager to put right a dismal home record which has seen them without a win in the Premier League on their own turf since April.

“Savona will miss the game, Igor as well,” head coach Glasner said in his pre-match press conference. “Milenkovic trained for the first time today (Friday). Let's see now how he reacts. He could be in the matchday squad, but let's see because he has been out for several weeks.

“Morgan Gibbs-White is a doubt. He couldn't train the entire week with us. It looks like he can join tomorrow's session. He had an individual session today with our rehab coaches. He suffered a minor muscle injury at Palace. We have to see how he reacts today and how he deals with tomorrow's session, and then we will take the final decision.

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“This is a long season. These are just situations that happen, especially when players are going away and playing for the country for more than two weeks.

“It's not to blame anybody. It's just that every manager has his style of training and everything, and then the body has to get adapted to a different kind of training, a different load. These things can happen.

“But luckily the injury (to Gibbs-White) doesn't seem to be very serious. We have a chance that he's available.

“With Igor, we know that he will be out for a few more games. The situation is that everybody else can step up and show that he's ready.”

On potentially missing Gibbs-White, Glasner added: “We always try to play as a team, and Morgan is one part - a very important part of the team. But when we missed two centre-backs at Villa, we were able to get a win.

“Morgan is very important with the quality he has. But the team doesn't just depend on him. As I mentioned, it is for somebody else to step up and help the team to win. You can play with everybody fit, everybody available, everybody in top shape, and you can still lose against Arsenal.”