Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne has named a strong starting line-up to face Sky Bet Championship side Stoke City in a pre-season friendly at Pride Park Stadium which will also serve as long-serving defender Craig Forsyth’s Testimonial (3pm kick-off).
Forsyth himself starts in the Derby defence and will also fittingly captain the side against the Potters on his special day.
Korey Smith is back after injury, which has forced him to miss the last two friendlies, and will start in midfield while defender Kane Wilson is on the bench after sitting out the midweek friendly at Chesterfield.
Summer signings Sonny Bradley, Curtis Nelson and Joe Ward are in the starting line-up and will make their first appearances at Pride Park Stadium from the off.
Derby are once again without defender Callum Elder, attacking midfielders Louie Sibley and Tom Barkhuizen and striker Conor Washington as they have sat out of training in recent days although the majority are in line to return to training at some stage next week.
As the game is a celebration of Forsyth’s decade with the Rams, four of his former team-mates in the form of Craig Bryson, David Nugent, Martyn Waghorn and Bradley Johnson are named as substitutes and are expected to feature off the bench late on.
Derby County: Wildsmith (GK), Forsyth (C), Hourihane, Bradley, Bird, Collins, Mendez-Laing, Smith, Thompson, Ward, Nelson.
Substitutes: Loach (GK), Vickers (GK), Wilson, Cashin, Robinson, Rooney, Radcliffe, Brown, Bardell, Johnson, Bryson, Nugent, Waghorn.
Stoke City: Bonham (GK), Edwards, Stevens, Wilmot, Taylor, Pearson, Tymon, Laurent, Brown, Thompson, Campbell.
Substitutes: Johnson, Nna Noukeu (GK), Baker, Macari, Rose, Griffiths, Wright-Phillips, Lowe, Sidibe, Brooks (GK).
