Sam Allardyce is preparing for the News Year's Day clash with Derby at Pride Park with as few as ELEVEN first team regulars available for selection.
With four first team players due to miss the game through suspension and a further nine either injured or out on loan, Allardyce will be forced to look to his youth team in order to provide a seventeen-man squad for the game.However it is in defence that his biggest problems lie, with just Joey O'Brien and James Tomkins available for selection from the regular first team squad.
That means young Danny Potts, who made his first team debut against Barnsley just a fortnight ago will almost certainly extend his recent run in the first team, with Henri Lansbury likely to drop in at right back and O'Brien moved to the centre.
Possible starting XI: Green; Lansbury, O'Brien, Tomkins, Potts; Diop, Noble, Sears; Cole, Carew, Piquionne.
Missing in action: who's out and why
Suspended: Kevin Nolan, Jack Collison, George McCartney, Julien Faubert.
Injured: Sam Baldock, Matt Taylor, Guy Demel, Winston Reid, Abdoulaye Faye.
On Loan: Pablo Barrera, Herita Ilunga, Frank Nouble, Jordan Spence, Cristian Montano, Callum McNaughton, Jordan Brown, Olly Lee, Ahmed Abdullah.
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