Nottingham Forest injury state of play ahead of Sheffield United tie

Nottingham Forest are preparing to get their Championship play-off campaign under way as they bid to win promotion to the Premier League.

Forest take on Sheffield United in their semi-final, with the first leg being played at Bramall Lane on Saturday (3pm kick-off). The second leg will be at the City Ground on Tuesday (May 17, 7.45pm). The winners will face either Huddersfield Town or Luton Town at Wembley for a place in the top flight.

Steve Cooper's Reds rounded off their regular league campaign with a 1-1 draw at Hull City, having already secured a top-six finish, while narrowly missing out on the second automatic promotion spot to Bournemouth. Heading into the play-offs, Forest are still without a few key members of the squad due to injury. Here's a look at the state of play...

Hamstring.

The striker only recently returned from an ankle sprain which had kept him sidelined since the end of January. However, he was forced off barely 15 minutes after coming off the bench in the 1-0 win at Peterborough United. He was initially ruled out of the games against Fulham, Swansea City and the Cherries at least, but will now not feature for the rest of the campaign as he faces a six to seven-week lay-off.

Prior to facing the Swans, he said: “He won’t feature again this year, in terms of games we may or may not have to play. It’s looking at about a six to seven-week injury. Obviously we’re close to being a week into that now.

“It’s unfortunate for him. It was great that he was back in the mix and was starting to up his game time, and then unfortunately he’s had another set-back. That’s unfortunate for him and us.

“His future isn’t something that anybody is focusing on at the moment. The main focus with Lewis is getting the