There may be not as much injury news to bring you for Blank Gameweek 29 but it’s no less important, with Free Hit squads and transfers to be finalised.
There’ll be only eight Premier League press conferences taking place before Saturday’s deadline, three of which are today.
The head coaches of Brentford, Nottingham Forest and Burnley are up this afternoon.
The managers of the other five sides will either face the media tomorrow or pre-record pressers after tonight’s European ties.
We’ll have another live blog on Friday covering those.
Until then, we’ll point you in the direction of our early team news round-up for those clubs.
FPL GAMEWEEK 29 TEAM NEWS: KEY INJURY UPDATES
- Brentford: Reguilon “should be fit”, Mbeumo could be involved, Norgaard out
- Nottingham Forest: Nuno on last week’s benching of Elanga + Hudson-Odoi
- Burnley: No fresh concerns, maybe a “few positive surprises”
FPL GAMEWEEK 29 TEAM NEWS: THURSDAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE TIMES
BRENTFORD
Brentford will again be without Ethan Pinnock (ankle), Aaron Hickey (hamstring), Kevin Schade (muscle), Rico Henry (knee), Josh Dasilva (knee) and Ben Mee (ankle) this weekend.
Christian Norgaard came off with a back injury in Gameweek 29 and is also unavailable.
“Christian Nørgaard is not going to make it for the squad on Saturday because of back injury. We will take it week by week; hopefully it is not a long one.” – Thomas Frank, via the Brentford website
There’s good news on two other names, though.
Sergio Reguilon missed out with a minor hamstring injury against Arsenal last weekend but “should be fit and available”.
And we might see a first appearance in over three months from Bryan Mbeumo (ankle).
The winger has been is back in training over the last week and Thomas Frank now has to decide whether to include him for the Burnley game.
“He’s very close. I have a decision to make, to maybe involve him in the squad this weekend.
“He’s been on the grass for a week, he looks good, and he’s one of our best players. I need to find out if it’s just a touch too early, or to bring him for the game against Burnley.” – Thomas Frank on Bryan Mbeumo, via the Brentford website
NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Nuno Espirito Santo hasn’t offered us much new on the team news front.
Ola Aina (muscle) and Giovani Reyna (knock) aren’t thought to be too far away. The former was seen in training last week, while the latter reportedly travelled to Brighton at the weekend but wasn’t involved in the matchday squad.
Gonzalo Montiel hasn’t featured since Gameweek 26, with local media reporting a “setback” after his recent return from a hamstring injury.
Nuno Tavares (muscle) is set to remain out, too.
The more noteworthy quotes from Nuno concerned his team selection at Brighton and Hove Albion last weekend. Then, the Forest boss benched Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi in a tactical move.
He again hinted that he may return to a more familiar set-up on Saturday, although the “I will change” line at the beginning of the below quote seems to have been him talking about whether he would have changed last week’s starting XI.
“For sure, I will change. After the game, it’s easier to change! But the plan was clear, to try and control the middle of the park, having an extra midfielder there. It didn’t quite work out. I think large spells of the second half were much better, I think we were more dominant, more aggressive, with more pace.” – Nuno Espirito Santo, when asked about last week’s team selection and if he would ‘change things going forward’
BURNLEY
Vincent Kompany reported no fresh concerns for his Burnley squad ahead of the weekend.
The Clarets’ head coach generally doesn’t like to give too much away on the team news front. He did suggest there could be “a few positive surprises” but didn’t name names, other than to confirm Ameen Al-Dakhil (unknown) was still out.
Jordan Beyer (muscle) and Han-Noah Massengo (unknown), who were specifically named by a reporter asking the team news question, weren’t mentioned by their manager in his response.
“No fresh injury concerns, maybe a few positive surprises. We’ll see. Most of the players that have been important for us this season are close to a return or dong well. Hopefully, the international break will see our squad bolstered again.” – Vincent Kompany
“He’s been injured since he was out of the squad. I think his last game was Tottenham Hotspur, which was actually a really good performance.
“He’s not on the surprise return list, no.” – Vincent Kompany on Ameen Al-Dakhil
It’s definitely season over for Aaron Ramsey (knee) and Nathan Redmond (leg).
Lyle Foster (muscle) and Luca Koleosho (knee) have been on the longer-term injury list but Kompany had previously said that those two could play again in 2023/24.
