Nuno, Nottingham Forest’s manager, is eager to reduce the size of his squad.
Emmanuel Dennis, Omar Richards, Joe Worrall, Josh Bowler, and Hwang Ui-jo were all absent from their 0-0 tie with Villarreal in a preseason friendly.
Nuno stated: “Those players work with us and were with us throughout the camp in Spain.
“They’re still with us. But today, I brought 18. It was an attempt to confront the realities of what we will face and the solutions we will find.
“There is no point in bringing extra numbers if you approach this game as a true, competitive game, so we tried to manage it and include everyone on the bench. We’ll see what the future holds for these players. We will always take great caution when making judgments about athletes’ futures.”