Nottingham Forest vs Leeds latest team news with Cheikhou Kouyate returning and Serge Aurier doubtful

Nottingham Forest face Leeds tonight at Elland Road with much the same injury concerns as they had last weekend against Wolves.

Ryan Yates is ruled out of action with a shoulder injury which has plagued his return to Forest’s survival-chasing squad.  The Tricky Trees will miss he tenacity in midfield and have to rely on the young Brazilian star, Danilo, to give Forest that physical edge in the middle of the park.

Meanwhile, Serge Aurier and Gustavo Scarpa are doubts for tonight’s six-pointer, having picked up knocks in the international break.

Speaking ahead of the game head coach Steve Cooper said: "Serge is still recovering. We’ll give him every chance to be available for tomorrow night. But we haven’t decided on that one yet.

“Apart from that, we’re as we were before the Wolves game. A couple of lads returned at the weekend, and it was great to get them back on the pitch.

“We’ve got a few boys back who have been out injured for a little while, obviously we’ve picked up a few in recent weeks, so it’s a mixed bag in terms of availability. We plan accordingly. We’ll see, we’ll give everybody a chance.

“Yatesy will definitely not be available, because of his shoulder injury. The other guys, we haven’t ruled in or out yet. We’ll see how the land lies tomorrow.”

With Forest only one point above Leeds, who sit third bottom in the League, the return of Taiwo Awoniyi and Cheikhou Kouyate will provide much needed depth off the bench as Forest seek to put some daylight between them and the drop zone.

Willy Boly, Omar Richards, Chris Wood and Giulian Biancone remain out for the season with Scott McKenna and Dean Henderson seeking to return before the end of the season.

Nottingham Forest predicted XI: Navas, Williams, Felipe, Niakhate, Lodi, Mangala, Freuler, Danilo, Johnson, Dennis, Gibbs-White.