Brentford's record signing Igor Thiago has suffered another injury setback.

The £30million Brazilian striker faces more time on the sidelines after boss Thomas Frank revealed he has a joint infection.

Thiago joined Brentford from Club Brugge in the summer but missed the first three months of the season with a knee injury.

The 23-year-old has since made one start and three substitute appearances but sat out Sunday's defeat at Chelsea and the midweek Carabao Cup loss at Newcastle.

"Thiago, he got a joint infection, that's very unlucky," said Frank

"I don't know how that happened but it happened, unfortunately. We will take care of that but I don't know how long that will take."

The Bees discovered the extent of the problem on Wednesday, just hours before another two players were added to their extensive casualty list when defenders Sepp van den Berg and Ethan Pinnock were injured at St James' Park.

"Igor has been very unlucky," added Frank. "The risk of getting a joint infection is very, very small.

"But apparently it's the opposite when you are a Brentford player; instead of a two per cent chance it's a 98 per cent chance.

"But that will turn. Everything goes in circles. We'll get our luck."

Van den Berg suffered a minor groin injury in the warm-up on Wednesday night and will miss Saturday's visit of Nottingham Forest along with Pinnock, who pulled a hamstring.

"With Sepp I think it will be too quick to turn it around for Saturday but we will see - it will probably be too quick.

"Ethan, I don't know the full picture, but when it's a hamstring it's never top, so it might be a longer one, but I don't know yet."

The Bees are still without Mathias Jensen, Gustavo Nunes, Rico Henry, Aaron Hickey and Josh Dasilva, but captain Christian Norgaard is fit again and will start against Forest.

Additional reporting from PA