Nottingham Forest head coach Vitor Pereira is hopeful Morgan Gibbs-White will be fit for their Europa League semifinal second leg against Aston Villa on Thursday but said the medical team will have to work their "magic" after he suffered a deep cut to his forehead in their 3-1 win over Chelsea on Monday.
Pereira made eight changes for the match at Stamford Bridge from the side that beat Villa 1-0 in the first leg of their Europa League semifinal on Thursday. And the second string delivered, with Taiwo Awoniyi scoring in either half, and Igor Jesus slotting home a penalty.
Pereira made three substitutions at the break, bringing on Elliot Anderson, Gibbs-White and Nikola Milenkovic. But Gibbs-White was forced off in the 66th minute after suffering a deep cut in a clash of heads with Chelsea keeper Robert Sánchez. He has just three days to recover before Forest head to Villa Park on Thursday.
"I'm waiting -- Gibbs-White has a deep cut, we'll see -- he's a fighter, he has a strong mentality," Pereira said.
"I hope our medical department can do magic to put him in condition for Thursday. I said to him you don't need to head [the ball] you just need to play!"
When asked if Gibbs-White had suffered a concussion, Pereira answered: "No, no concussion. He's speaking normally, he remembers everything, but the only thing is the pain."
Zach Abbott was also forced off with a head injury after his clash of heads with Jesse Derry in the first half.
"I spoke to him in the dressing room, and he's okay," Pereira said.
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And Pereira said he was never in any doubt of his player's ability to get a result at Chelsea despite making the wholesale changes. "I know very well my players, I work every day with them. I did the same when we went to FC Midtjylland [in the Europa League].
"I tried to balance the energy of the team, we have some injuries and if I have more players, I'd have made more changes but it was not possible.
"In the end I said to my players, I can change you and the players but I can't change the spirit of this team. This team is resilient -- they are playing with confidence, playing united with organisation and ambitions to win the games. We came here to win the game.
"It was about keeping our future in our hands and to do that, we need to do that prove ourselves and play at our best level. The only pressure is to feel the best of themselves inside the pitch to do everything to win the game.
"I think we deserved the result -- again, we proved to ourselves that we compete and will compete through to the end of the season with victory in our mind."
