PETER JACKSON is hoping Andy Booth will be back to help Town try to put out a Forest fire on Saturday.
And while the Nottingham trip will come too soon for Jon Worthington, the manager hopes his captain will be in contention for the big Bradford derby at the Galpharm seven days later.
Having made 18 successive starts, his longest run since 2002-03, striker Booth has missed the last two matches because of a damaged calf muscle.
Scans showed the 33-year-old, who has eight goals this season and 133 in all for Town, sustained a slight tear during the 2-0 home defeat by Brentford a week last Saturday.
With physio Lee Martin giving regular treatment and the player responding well, Jackson is hoping he will return to training in the next few days and make himself available for the joust with Colin Calderwood's side.
The arrival of Paul Hayes on loan from Barnsley - he made his debut in Saturday's 2-1 home defeat by Crewe - has added to Jackson's options.
But the boss is still eager to have competition for starting berths for a City Ground contest for which his 11-goal top scorer Gary Taylor- Fletcher is suspended.
Right-back Andy Holdsworth and midfielder Danny Schofield are back after one-match bans and likely to return to the XI against Forest, who will be in confident mood after going third with Saturday's 2-1 win at Chesterfield (Town are 13th).
Worthington will miss his sixth straight match on Saturday because of a nagging groin injury which eventually required surgery.
That procedure, which involved the insertion of a mesh to strengthen the whole area, went well and the 23-year-old has been having solo training sessions with Martin.
"Hopefully he will be able to join in with the whole squad by the end of this week," said Jackson.
