Nottingham Forest get three players back for Sheffield United play-off clash but another three remain sidelined

Forest head to South Yorkshire to take on Sheffield United in the first leg of the Championship play-off semi-final, with the sides due to meet again at the City Ground on Tuesday night.

Colback, Yates and Cook all missed the 1-1 draw at Hull City last weekend, with the latter set to return while Cooper will give the other two players "every chance" of featuring at Bramall Lane.

Yates missed out against Hull with shoulder problem while Colback was not risked due to a groin issue. Cook was absent after his father suffered a cardiac arrest in Forest's penultimate game against Bournemouth while he also sustained a head knock in that clash.

Cooper said of Colback and Yates: “They are making progress. We’ll give them every chance to be available.

“They’re obviously desperate to play, as you can imagine. Everybody is desperate to play."

He added: “And Steve Cook will be available. He had some personal stuff going on and he cracked his head open at Bournemouth, so he didn’t play at Hull for a couple of reasons.

"But he’s back with us now and is looking good. We’re doing alright. Normal really.”

Cooper will remain without strikers Lewis Grabban and Keinan Davis due to hamstring issues while a groin problem is set to keep full-back Max Lowe out of action.

The Forest boss does not expect Grabban or Davis, who have scored 13 and six goals respectively this season, to be available for Tuesday's return leg.

He added: "It’s not something we’ve thought about, we take it game by game.

“It would be such a quick turnaround. Normally if you are available for a Tuesday game - unless it’s a really short injury - you are probably available for what would be the Saturday game, and that’s not the case. So no, is the answer.”

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