Two high profile Newcastle players noticeably absent from recent round of training ground photos

Newcastle United are preparing for another crunch Premier League tie at the weekend as they head to the City Ground to face Nottingham Forest.

Newcastle owe Forest a hiding after being on the receiving end of one at St James' Park thanks to a hat trick from former Magpie, Chris Wood.

Wood is unavailable for Forest this weekend after picking up an injury that could keep him out for two months, however, there may well be another former Magpie on the pitch in disaster 'keeper Matz Sels who signed for Forest on transfer deadline day.

Newcastle could be without two influential players on Saturday

Newcastle have injury concerns of their own, as they have all season, and after the club released their latest gallery of training photos from today's session, there were to big names missing from the shots.

This doesn't always mean that said players didn't partake in training, as Eddie Howe likes to play his cards close to his chest so will no doubt ask Serena Taylor not to post photos of players who the public and the media think are injured so he can spring a matchday surprise on the opposition.

However, with Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak both victims of mid-game injuries in recent games and both players missing from the training photos, it does suggest that the two could be missing on Saturday.

Fingers crossed the club are just playing games with us

I think we were all expecting Isak to be absent for the Forest game, despite Jason Tindall trying to suggest last week that he was in contention for a place in the squad to face Luton. Eddie Howe has since downplayed the hope of such a speedy recovery.

Meanwhile, Anthony Gordon left St James' Park on crutches after the Luton game after he was withdrawn at half time with a twisted ankle.

We're still awaiting news from the club on the extent of that injury, but chatter suggests that it's not a serious one. Therefore we think Gordon may have trained today, but all evidence is being hidden. At least, we hope that's the case.