The two Nottingham Forest stars ruled out of Newcastle United opener - including summer signing

Nottingham Forest play their first Premier League game since 1999 when they take on Newcastle United this afternoon.

Steve Cooper’s side are hoping to spring a surprise on the Magpies, who are full of optimism ahead of the new campaign.

But if Forest are to do that, they’ll have to do it without a couple of their first team players.

The first is Ryan Yates. The midfielder missed just three games for Forest last season but misses the trip to St James’ Park with a knee injury.

Cooper said during his pre-match press conference: “Ryan Yates hasn’t got back in time.

“He’s not far away but it’s a real blow for him because he would have loved to be part of Saturday but we’re as we were.”

A positive for Forest is the return of Wayne Hennessey, however he is unlikely to start ahead of Manchester United loanee Dean Henderson.

“Wayne Hennessey is back training, he missed a game through a small injury but he’s back for the weekend.”

Forest paid £10million to sign full-back Omar Richards from Bayern Munich this summer but the 24-year-old did not feature in pre-season.

He too is ruled out of the clash on Tyneside.

“He has picked up an injury, and we’re still getting to the bottom of it,” Cooper said, “It’s really unfortunate.

“It’s not going to be a few days, but it’s not going to be months and months and months. It’s something we’re going through and working on.

“When we know conclusive dates, we’ll let you know. But I guess the short-term feeling of it is one of a little bit of disappointment, because we got him here and he was so excited.

“He trained really well, and obviously it’s a bit of a setback. I said to him, ‘nothing changes, in terms of the plan for you, it’s just a little bit delayed’.”