Nuno Espirito Santo makes Nottingham Forest injury admission and Arsenal 'compete' promise

Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo has a number of fitness concerns going into the weekend's clash with Arsenal. The Gunners welcome Forest to Emirates Stadium on Saturday, with both sides on 19 points in the Premier League.

The away side will be looking to continue their excellent start to the season, but Nuno must wait to see which players will be fit to take on the Gunners. Danilo (broken ankle) and Ibrahim Sangare (hamstring) are Forest’s only known injury absentees, but after players spread out over the globe during the international break, a number of them will need to be assessed before the weekend.

“Those two are definitely out and cannot be involved,” Nuno said. “We have some other situations to manage and decide. We still have (Ramon) Sosa to arrive, because he plays later (for Paraguay). The rest of them are here and, for now, okay…

“We are just managing some players and some situations. As we mentioned before, we took the chance of the international break to recover some players. Let’s wait and see if they improve.”

Ola Aina is expected to be fit despite returning early from international duty with Nigeria. The full-back played 83 minutes of Thursday’s 1-1 draw with Benin Republic before being withdrawn. Aina reportedly had an agreement in place to return early if Nigeria’s place at the Africa Cup of Nations had been secured, and last week’s draw was enough for them to qualify.

Having been in a relegation scrap for much of last season, Forest sit fifth this term after 11 games. Although their last game ended in a 3-1 home defeat to Newcastle, only their second loss of the season, the Forest players will head to the home of one of the pre-season title favourites full of belief.

“We always believe that we can compete, that’s our approach,” Nuno said. “We’re going to face a good team, a tough team, and we are going to compete, doing the things that we want, trying to avoid the things Arsenal wants to do and does really well. It’s going to be a tough game…

“After the international break it’s always a question mark for the team about what response is going to happen in the game. We are in the same situation.

“Hopefully we can prepare well and perform well again because even though the result was not the best one, in terms of performance we have to admit that Newcastle played really well. We didn’t do the things we wanted, now there’s a chance to improve and get better.”

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