Nottingham Forest have a number of players currently plying their trade elsewhere as they look to get regular game time.
Several Reds players are out on loan and will be doing their best to catch the eye. But it has been a case of mixed fortunes so far this season for Forest’s loanees.
Head coach Steve Cooper and the club will be keeping a keen eye on how they are getting on. We take a look at how they have done so far.
After impressing at Burton Albion in the second half of last term, the 19-year-old will spend this season with the Chairboys. He got his loan spell off to a fine start, opening his goalscoring account in a 3-2 win over Leyton Orient and making six starts.
A calf injury stopped him in his tracks when he was stretchered off against Bristol Rovers at the end of August. But he has been getting a fair bit of game time since returning to action in September.
He added to his goal tally with a brace in a 4-1 thumping of Fleetwood Town and has made 17 appearances so far for Wanderers. Making his first start for Northern Ireland’s senior team as they beat San Marino 3-0 during last month capped a positive start to the campaign for the teenager.
Injury ended Back’s loan spell with the Cumbrians early last season. But he returned to Brunton Park in the summer summer.
He has played 15 games so far, with all of those appearances coming in the starting line-up. He was not eligible to feature against Forest’s Under-21s when they faced Carlisle in the EFL Trophy recently.
Boss Paul Simpson said he had been managing Back’s workload initially, at Forest’s request. The defender had been going along well, but was forced to pull out of a game against Cambridge United last month 20 minutes before kick-off. He had been suffering discomfort in his leg during the pre-match warm-up.
“He said he’d be ok to play and we thought he was going to be ok, but then he had to drop out,” Simpson told the News & Star afterwards. “He told us about it yesterday and maybe I’ve made a mistake by listening to him because he wanted to play.
“He’s been doing well of late and if he tells me he’s alright then I don’t know how his thigh is feeling. He is a strong character, but I probably should have made that call.”
