Nottingham Forest are negotiating a possible short-term contract with free agent Andre Ayew, who is in the city to try to complete a deal.

However, if Lewis O’Brien’s loan deal to Blackburn Rovers collapses, Forest may pull the plug on the Ayew talks.

That is because Forest don’t have space for both O’Brien and Ayew in their official Premier League squad list – the 25 names which must be submitted by 3pm on Thursday.

Steve Cooper has already decided on 24 of those 25 names, Sky Sports News understands, and though he is a big admirer of Ayew, who played under him at Swansea City, Forest may yet have to withdraw from the negotiations.

The Forest manager will have to make a quick decision in the next few hours about whether to push through a deal for Ayew and name him in his league squad, but then risk O’Brien being stuck on the Forest wage bill for the remainder of this season without being able to play for the club.

Forest’s defeat to Manchester United in the Caribou Cup on Wednesday night, together with them being knocked out of the FA Cup to Blackpool in January, means there are no other matches that O’Brien could feature in.

Forest signed PSG goalkeeper Keylor Navas, midfielder Jonjo Shelvey from Newcastle and defender Felipe from Atletico Madrid all on Deadline Day to take their number of signings to 29 since the summer.

Source:skysports.com