A key moment of the match showed Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis having what seemed like a "heated discussion" with the coach Nuno Espírito. However, Forest, in a statement, revealed that Marinakis was worried about Awoniyi's injury.
"This was why he was so personally and emotionally invested in what happened on City Ground," the statement read.
Awo collided with the post in the 88th minute. However, the club physios misread the situation, clearing him to continue playing, which might have aggravated his injury. The seriousness was not known until he had to undergo emergency surgery the following day.
Anthony Elanga, who gave the cross, was visibly offside, but the linesman did not raise the flag due to the "delayed rules" in football.
While many football fans are blaming the delayed rules — which allowed Elanga to make the cross that eventually led to Awo's collision with the post — it is important to remember that a wrong offside call can also deny a goal-scoring opportunity. Hence, the rule to wait for VAR to make the call, even though Elanga was visibly offside.
Awoniyi has faced multiple injuries since he joined Forest in 2022. Awo’s career took off after he was signed by Liverpool following his performance at the FIFA U-17 World Cup for Nigeria. However, because of work permit issues, he was loaned out to German and Belgian clubs before being signed permanently by Union Saint Berlin and later transferred to Nottingham Forest.
Despite the injuries that have made him miss multiple games and lose confidence, with his place now taken over by Chris Wood, Awo is still loved by Forest fans for his work on and off the pitch. He recently received praise for visiting the club’s Muslim community to celebrate Eid-El-Fitr with them.
The club, in the statement, confirmed that he is recovering well after his urgent surgery.
Get well soon, Awo. Come back stronger!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hello Thanks for commenting On My Blog.