Nottingham Forest will be aiming to get back to winning ways in the Championship tomorrow when they head to St Andrew's to face Birmingham City.
After securing back-to-back victories over Cardiff City and Queens Park Rangers earlier this month, the Reds have hit somewhat of a stumbling block due to the fact that they dropped points in their recent clashes with Bristol City and Huddersfield Town.
With his side currently heading towards a mid-table finish in the Championship, Chris Hughton may already be looking at making decisions concerning the future of some of Forest's players ahead of the summer transfer window.
One of the individuals who is set to return to the City Ground following the culmination of the 2020/21 campaign is Nuno da Costa who is currently on loan at Royal Excel Mouscron.
Whilst the Belgian side did have a clause in this particular deal to sign the forward on a permanent basis, it is now looking unlikely that an agreement with the Reds will be reached.
According to news outlet PaperJam (as cited by the Nottingham Post) Mouscron's main shareholder Gerard Lopez has suggested that the club cannot afford to finance a deal for da Costa due to the fact that they were relegated from the Belgian First Division at the weekend.
During his time with Les Hurlus, the 30-year-old has scored six goals and provided two assists in 28 appearances in all competitions this season.
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With a permanent move to Mouscron unlikely to happen, it will be intriguing to see whether da Costa is given a second-chance to prove himself at Forest by Hughton.
Signed last year by the Reds, the Cape Verde international failed to make any sort of impression at the City Ground during the latter stages of the previous campaign as he only featured on 10 occasions in the Championship.
Given that da Costa, who is valued at £1.17m on Transfermarkt, has yet to score for Forest, there is no guarantee that he will be able to cope with the competitiveness of the second-tier next season.
Whilst the Reds do need to bolster their attacking options this summer having only managed to find the back of the net on 34 occasions in 42 league games, the forward's return should not affect their transfer plans.
If da Costa cannot impress Hughton in pre-season, it may be worth Forest cashing in on him as it will put club in a better position to draft in a quality attacker who has a proven track-record of delivering the goods at Championship level.