Lewis Grabban: Nottingham Forest captain to miss rest of season with hamstring injury

Striker Lewis Grabban will miss the rest of Nottingham Forest's bid for promotion to the Premier League this season because of a hamstring injury.

The Reds can seal automatic promotion if they beat Swansea, Bournemouth and Hull in their final three games.

If they fail to win those games to finish in the top two, they could still earn promotion through the play-offs.

"He [Grabban] won't feature again in terms of games we may or may not have to play," said Reds boss Steve Cooper.

Forest captain Grabban, 34, who is out of contract in the summer, was injured after coming off the bench in the 1-0 win at Peterborough last week.

He missed seven games during February and March because of an ankle injury, and started his first match for 10 weeks in Forest's 1-0 defeat by Luton on 15 April.

"It was great that he was back in the mix and starting to up his game time," Cooper told BBC Radio Nottingham.

"Unfortunately its another setback."

Grabban, the Reds' top scorer in the past three seasons, netted the last of his 12 Championship goals this term in Forest's 2-1 win against East Midlands rivals Derby in January.

Manager Cooper also said that midfielder Jack Colback and forwards Sam Surridge and Philip Zinckernagel, who scored the winner against leaders Fulham on Tuesday, could miss Saturday's game against Swansea. The trio were substituted in the second half against the Cottagers.

"We will have to see how they go in terms of the weekend, it's a little inconclusive at the moment," Cooper said.

"With the games coming in such quick succession we're trying to give everybody as much recovery time as possible. There will be a few late shouts on them."