Brentford striker Maupay suffers hamstring injury

Brentford striker Neal Maupay looks likely to miss the start of the season after suffering a hamstring injury in the friendly against Watford.

The Frenchman went down holding his thigh early on in the 2-1 defeat at Griffin Park and was replaced by Marcus Forss on 15 minutes.

Bees boss Dean Smith believes he has enough options to cope with Maupay’s absence.

“It’s too early to say how long he’ll be out for,” Smith said. “We will get it scanned tomorrow or Monday and see where we go from there.

“We’ve got more than enough options. It’s not ideal obviously but Ollie Watkins can play up there, Sergi Canos can play there and we’ve got young Marcus Forss.

“The annoying part is that Neal has been doing very well in pre-season, scoring goals. We could all see a big season for him so let’s hope it’s only a couple of weeks.”

Watkins scored the opener but a Henrik Dalsgaard own goal and a goal by former Brentford man Andre Gray meant defeat for the Bees, who start the season against Rotherham next week.

Smith said: “It was a good competitive pre-season friendly for us against top opposition.

“I thought we created some opportunities, and we took the lead early on. The only downside was Neal getting injured.”