Nottingham Forest take on Aston Villa in the second leg of their Europa League semi-final at Villa Park on Thursday
16:29, 06 May 2026Updated 16:36, 06 May 2026
Nottingham Forest players train ahead of their Europa League semi-final second leg against Aston Villa.
Morgan Gibbs-White was absent from Nottingham Forest training ahead of Thursday’s Europa League decider.
In his pre-match press conference at lunchtime on Wednesday, Reds head coach Vitor Pereira had said Gibbs-White was a doubt for the semi-final second leg at Villa Park (8pm kick-off). And the playmaker was not involved a few hours later as Forest were put through their paces at the Nigel Doughty Academy.
Centre-back Murillo, who has missed the past three games with a suspected hamstring problem, did join in with his teammates. However, there was no sign of injured trio midfielder Ibrahim Sangare, full-back Ola Aina or winger Dan Ndoye.
Gibbs-White had been left requiring stitches after sustaining a significant gash to his forehead in Monday’s 3-1 victory at Chelsea. Pereira had said his No.10 had been for a mask fitting on Tuesday, but he was still uncertain whether he would be available to face Villa.
The Portuguese is planning to make a late decision regarding his team selection, to give his injured players every chance to feature. His team hold a 1-0 advantage going into the clash at the West Midlands.
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Pereira had said of Gibbs-White in his pre-match press conference: “He has pain, for sure. We will see. We have until tomorrow to see if he is able or not. We will see.
“It is a big question. This is not a question for me, it is a decision between the player, the medical department and myself. But we didn’t (yet) have the last meeting to decide.
“I really don’t know. The doubts you have about Morgan are the same doubts I have.
“We will have a meeting today. We have until tomorrow to see, and we will see what we can do.
“But if Morgan cannot play, we will still start with 11 players. He is a very important player for us but we are ready to face this match.
“I honestly hope he can play and can help us tomorrow. But in case it’s not possible, we’ll play with another (player), and this one, for sure, will try to be the best player on the pitch.”
Asked if Gibbs-White has had a mask fitted, Pereira quipped: “I think so, but I don’t know the colour! I think yesterday he went to make the mask.”
Pereira was coy on whether any of Murillo, Aina, Sangare or Ndoye could return to face Villa. Whoever plays, the Reds boss wants his team to show the same spirit that has seen them go 10 unbeaten in all competitions.
Asked how late he might leave his decision to name his team, Pereira said: “Not because I have doubt about Morgan, but because I have doubt about the injured players, I will delay my decisions. But in my mind I have plan A, B and C.
“We have a lot of (injury) doubts. We can have doubts about the players (who might be fit), but we cannot have doubts about the spirit, about what we want, about how we believe, about resilience, about what we should do tactically. This is something we cannot doubt.
“About the (injured) players, I have a lot (of doubts). I think today we will have a meeting and decide to look for the army and to understand the soldiers! To go into the battle, I prefer to go with the healthy soldiers. We’ll see.”
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