Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United are involved in a fierce relegation Premier League battle right now, but the Reds suffered an injury blow to defender Jair Cunha on Thursday night.
Forest, Tottenham and West Ham are separated by just one point heading into this weekend's top flight fixtures, with one of them in real danger of dropping into the Championship next term.
Vitor Pereira's men have the most winnable fixture on paper as they face Fulham at home on Sunday, with Marco Silva's men coming into the match after back-to-back defeats at home to West Ham and then Southampton in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Meanwhile, West Ham host title-chasing Manchester City on Saturday, while Igor Tudor's Tottenham travel to Anfield to face Liverpool on Sunday.
These games are followed by a massive six-pointer between Forest and Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the following week, which Cunha could be in danger of missing.
Forest Suffer Jair Cunha Injury Scare
Not only did Nottingham Forest suffer a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Midtjylland at the City Ground in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 knockout tie, in terrible conditions, on Thursday, but they also lost Cunha to injury within the first 10 minutes.
The Brazilian passed a late fitness test to face the Danish side having missed training on Wednesday with an unspecified issue, before appearing to roll his ankle in the early stages of the game.
Speaking post-match about the issue, manager Pereira said:
"Jair had something with his foot. I don’t know the problem."
While the 21-year-old didn't feature much under Ange Postecoglou or Sean Dyche earlier in the season, he has come into contention since Pereira took charge.
The tall centre-back played the full 90 minutes during last weekend's unexpected 2-2 draw with Manchester City, having come on as a substitute in the match against Brighton and Hove Albion previously.
Should he be ruled out this weekend, and for the trip to Tottenham next weekend, he will be a big miss.
Pereira Hints at Cunha Absence vs Fulham
Pereira's following comments about Cunha hinted that he doesn't expect that he will be available for Fulham given the quick turnaround between games.
The Portuguese manager added:
“It was a pity because we had to make a sub after five minutes. We had prepared the game to play with him but it was not possible. With Jair or without him, we must be ready to fight again.”
Both West Ham and Tottenham will be hoping that Cunha is missing to boost their own survival hopes in the coming weeks.
Who is Most Likely to Stay Up?
GIVEMESPORT asked ChatGPT who is most likely to go down when looking at each club's remaining fixtures, and this is what it said:
'Based on current standings and remaining fixtures, West Ham appear the most likely to be relegated, followed by Nottingham Forest, with Tottenham the least likely of the three.
'West Ham are currently in the relegation zone and face several difficult games, including matches against Manchester City, Aston Villa and Arsenal.
'Forest sit just above the drop zone but also have a challenging run-in with trips to Chelsea and Manchester United.
'Tottenham are only one point clear but have a comparatively more balanced schedule, including several direct rivals, giving them better chances to pick up points.
'Statistical models and betting odds similarly rate West Ham as the most likely of the three to go down.'