CHERRIES are still set to be without a host of senior players for Saturday's trip to Nottingham Forest.

Eight first-team players were unavailable for Friday night's Championship opener against West Brom, and none of those are guaranteed to return in time to head to the City Ground this weekend.

Discussing the fitness of those who missed out against the Baggies, boss Scott Parker said: "Arnie Danjuma is back training with the group. He has missed a lot, so needs some work to get up to speed really and fitness-wise. But it’s good that he’s back with the group and back training with us. That’s a real positive.

"Steve Cook the same, is back with the group, albeit modified. Still not in full training, it’s modified training. He’s still not available to play.

"Junior Stanislas was a pleasing result on his scan, not as bad as we first thought. He’s already on the grass. This weekend probably comes a little bit quick, but I’d like to think the coming games next week will see Junior back, so that was pleasing.

"Leif Davis, training on his own. Modified now, has been with the group for the past couple of days. He probably fits into the Danjuma category of not done a lot of work over pre-season, so we’ll need to judge exactly where he is.

"Ben Pearson is back with the group as well. Probably not done a lot of work over the last couple of weeks, so we’ll need to judge that tomorrow or nearer the time for the weekend to see where we are with that one.

"Jack Stacey has trained now over the last couple of days, picked up his work, trained with the team today.

"We’ll have to make a call on Jack tomorrow probably to see exactly his availability and whether he’s ready for the weekend. But at this present moment in time, it’s looking positive."

Jefferson Lerma remains unavailable this weekend as he serves the third game of his six-match suspension, while Lewis Cook remains a long-term absentee as he recovers from a knee injury.