SEAN O'Driscoll will bring an as yet unnamed out-of-contract defender to Nottingham Forest on trial – and look for potential loan signings – as he tries to avoid having to deal with one of the main issues that plagued his predecessors.
The Reds boss does not want to be forced to put 'square pegs in round holes' as he faces a potential injury crisis in the centre of defence.
Daniel Ayala has been troubled with a hamstring injury and was substituted during the draw with Blackpool on Tuesday.
On top of that, Greg Halford is on the brink of a suspension, having picked up four bookings, Sam Hutchinson's loan from Chelsea may be brought to an end in January as he struggles to shake off a persistent knee problem and highly-rated youngster Jamaal Lascelles is sidelined with bone bruising.
O'Driscoll was part of the coaching staff last season when Steve Cotterill frequently had players playing out of position, while it was also a regular lament from another former manager, Billy Davies.
And O'Driscoll is determined to avoid suffering the same problems, saying: "Hopefully we can avoid that. We have to do something. There is the possibility of making loan signings, but we also have somebody coming in on trial on Monday.
"He is someone the club has scouted in the past, who they have looked at before and who is out of contract now. So it would not be an issue if we wanted to sign him, because he is a free agent.
"We have a massive problem there now, because Greg is on four bookings. If Daniel is going to be out for any length of time, we are going to have to get someone in on loan.
"We lost Daniel to injury in the first half at Blackpool and even Greg went down in the second half with a shoulder problem.
"We were left thinking what we could do if Greg had been forced to come off.
"We would have put Chris Cohen at right-back and pushed Brendan Moloney into the centre of defence.
"We have done that kind of thing in the past, which is OK. But you don't really want to start games like that. A club of this size should not be doing that.
"You have to go down that route sometimes, you sometimes find yourself in that situation – and Steve had to do it quite a bit last season."
With Hutchinson having struggled for fitness for several weeks now, O'Driscoll felt the defensive area might be an issue in the future. But he did not want to bring in another player on loan when only five are allowed in a match day squad at a time.
"We do lack a little cover there. But I did not want to have six loan players," he said.
"Sam is not going to be fit for some time.
"We should have a definitive answer on that by the end of the week, when it comes to how long it might be.
"We are trying to work through it, because he is desperate to stay and desperate to play and we want him here.
"On top of that, Jamaal has bone bruising still and, when you are his age, you don't want to rush young players back when they have something like that."
