The 'tasty triumvirate' Nottingham Forest must be wary of in Sheffield United showdown

After a week of waiting, the play-offs begin for Nottingham Forest on Saturday as they head to Bramall Lane for the first leg of their semi-final against Sheffield United.

It promises to be an enthralling - and nerve-wracking - encounter as the two teams go head-to-head, with the return fixture to come at the City Ground next Tuesday night. At stake across the two ties is a trip to Wembley for a shot at promotion to the Premier League.

Steve Cooper’s Reds are out to end an absence of more than two decades from the top-flight, while their opponents want to make an immediate return after last season’s relegation. Ahead of this weekend, we got the lowdown on the Blades from YorkshireLive’s Sheffield United correspondent Nathan Hemmingham.

United are expected to field a similar side to the one that faced Fulham last time out. All those players left on the treatment table have been ones with season-ending injuries.

The only one we don't have any timeframe on is Billy Sharp. He suffered a calf tear in the week leading up to the QPR fixture.

The club and player are doing all they can to try to recover, but he's not expected to be back for this fixture. The best-case scenario for him is that United get to the final and he therefore has a few more weeks to try to be ready.

It’s a good one. Very similar to Forest under Cooper, United were way off the pace when Paul Heckingbottom was appointed, but they stormed up the table, played some wonderful stuff and secured a number of big results and delivered some impressive performances.

Scoring goals, keeping clean sheets and to finish fifth after being 16th when Heckingbottom came in is a fantastic achievement. Everyone is looking forward to these next two games.

I think a lot. People