Steve Cooper can’t help Morgan Gibbs-White with heads-up about England call-up
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Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper has been in discussions with England boss Gareth Southgate but does not know whether Morgan Gibbs-White will be included in Thursday’s squad.
Southgate is set to name his group for forthcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers against Italy and Ukraine and Gibbs-White has impressed with his recent performances for Forest.
Cooper, the former England Under-17s manager, has regular dialogue with Southgate but discussions are not restricted to his Forest players.
“I speak to Gareth regularly, not just about our players, about all sort of things really, and Steve Holland,” Cooper said.
“Those conversations remain private, but a lot of the time it’s general stuff, not just Forest and football, but nothing to tell you guys.
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“I don’t know if he will be selected. He’s doing really well, the exciting bit is that he still has so much to go.
“It’s not a developmental period but it is a first experience of being a regular Premier League player, he’s relished the challenge.
“I know it’s an ambition for him, having been in the system with him along the way, and if that is a motivation he knows to do that he has to keep going and improving at club level at Nottingham Forest.
“That’s his controllable and focus and if he does that he’s high potential and who knows.”
Gibbs-White is set to lead Forest’s attacking ambitions against Newcastle on Friday, but Brennan Johnson is a doubt with a groin injury picked up at Tottenham last weekend.
Johnson has been named in the Wales squad for their Euro 2024 games, but Cooper says it is “unlikely” the forward will be fit for the Newcastle game.
“He has had a scan, when you have a scan it tells you something but you also have to treat the player,” he said.
“It’s unlikely Brennan will be involved at the weekend, but there’s a small chance and we want to give him every chance to see if he is available.
“If he is then great, we will use him and if not then it is one of those things. We are not completely ruling him out but when you walk off with a bit of a muscle injury it can take a little bit longer than a week to recover, so we’ll see.
“It would be disappointing but these things do happen, we would love all of our players to be available and vying to be in the team.
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“On that front it hasn’t gone so well in the last couple of months, but like I always say you have to focus on the guys who are available to play and they get maximum attention from myself and the staff.”
Chris Wood is ineligble as part of the terms of his loan deal from Newcastle but Jonjo Shelvey could play against his former club.
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