Nottingham Forest are extremely frustrated with Senegal’s handling of Cheikhou Kouyate with the midfielder facing a long spell on the sidelines due to a hamstring injury.
Kouyate sustained a torn hamstring in Senegal’s opening World Cup group fixture against Holland and is now set to be unavailable for a significant period.
Yet Sportsmail understands Forest are unhappy with how Kouyate has been managed while on international duty, meaning boss Steve Cooper is deprived of a key player in his side’s fight against relegation.
Kouyate joined Forest on a free transfer last summer and appeared in 12 of their 15 league matches before the World Cup break.
‘He is still going through some more scans, to determine the real extent of it, but he isn’t going to be back soon,’ said Cooper.
Forest signed 23 players last summer in a huge overhaul of their squad following promotion but were showing definite signs of improvement before the break, following a tricky start to the campaign.
They signed off with a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace after also knocking Tottenham out of the Carabao Cup during the week.
The 32-year-old played just 73 minutes of World Cup football against Holland before missing the rest of his side's campaign in Qatar, which saw them knocked out in the round of 16 by England.
Domestically he has managed just one goal with Forest, but has made 21 tackles, five interceptions, 19 clearances and three dribbles from his 12 Premier League appearances.