Nottingham Forest return to league action this weekend with a trip to Bloomfield Road. 

Forest have had a number of players away on international duty this week but goalkeeper Ethan Horvath and defender Richie Laryea are the last two players to get back with the group.

Horvath has been away with the USA and was on the bench on Wednesday night as his side qualified for the World Cup despite a 2-0 loss against Costa Rica.

Laryea has picked up some game time for Canada including a man of the match performance in his side's game against Costa Rica.

However with both players being far away, yesterday Steve Cooper provided an update on where the team were as he told Nottinghamshire Live: "We haven't got the group back together yet, because Richie and Ethan travel as we speak so we still haven't got the full group together.

"But there's no excuse, we've just got to get back together as quickly as we can and try to get up and running. That's what we're doing."

With the quick turnaround, it's in doubt whether the returning players will turn out for Nottingham Forest this weekend but Cooper says both players will be considered as he said: "A quick turnaround and time difference [between countries], all of those things need to get taken into account.

"We need to see them first. They'll have the normal assessments, like all the international boys do when they come back.

"We'll make that judgement call as and when we can. They've got through the camps, as far as we know, injury free. Obviously Richie has played a lot more that Ethan.

"Ethan and Richie travel back now and we'll see how they are."

The Verdict:

This is the hard bit about the international break as it's a struggle getting all the squad back together at the same time, especially when there are certain players much further away.

Horvath has had a really strong time with Forest as of late having stepped in for Brice Samba when he was suspended. However, the good thing about this is it means Forest have another strong keeper available if Horvath can't play so it shouldn't affect them too much.

Meanwhile, Laryea hasn't yet made an appearance for the side he joined in January which again will provide Cooper with some reassurance that his team won't majorly suffer as a result of having players back late from their countries.

Steve Cooper's men currently sit ninth in the league so will be looking to get a strong result against Blackpool in the hope of climbing the table towards the play-off spots.