Nottingham Forest ace Ola Aina says everyone at the City Ground has been impacted by Taiwo Awoniyi’s ordeal – and has called for a revision of rules to prevent a similar incident. The Nigerian forward suffered a gruesome injury after crashing into a post during Sunday’s 2-2 stalemate with Leicester.
He was given prolonged treatment by Forest’s medical team before attempting to continue. Awoniyi was later withdrawn – a move that reportedly sparked the furious on-field outburst from owner Evangelos Marinakis.
It was subsequently disclosed that Awoniyi had been rushed to hospital after suffering a ruptured intestine, requiring emergency surgery and a medically induced coma – though the coma has since been lifted. Aina has now opened up about the emotional toll the incident has had on the Forest squad.
Speaking to Mail Online, the full-back said:
“T is a very chilled guy. He doesn’t like to get in the way. He goes about his own business but he can have fun as well.
“He has been in a couple of my [YouTube] videos but I know he doesn’t like the cameras too much so I try not to put them in his face. I respect that about him. I have sent him a message of course. The whole team has.
“I have heard he is recovering well so hopefully we will hear from him soon. I knew he had hurt himself at the time but just didn’t realise it was to that extent. I only really heard when everyone was sending messages on our players’ group chat.
“We have a lot of things in common, me and Taiwo. Like our faith. But this is our team-mate and brother and someone we spend most of the year with day in day out. It affects everybody in some sort of way. All we can do is show our support and hopefully everything goes well for him now.”
Awoniyi potentially could have avoided the injury if the move he was involved in had ended sooner. Anthony Elanga was evidently offside, with his teammate lunging for the winger’s delivery before slamming into the post, but the flag stayed down.
And Aina believes that modifying the IFAB policy to delay offside flags for VAR checks could help prevent future accidents.
He added:
“Anthony was miles offside. The whole world could see and so could I from where I was.
“You think ‘offside’ straight away. Surely you could just lift the flag up? Personally I liked how it was back in the day when for offside they just put it up straight away.
“A simple decision and get on with the game. Having to see it out and then just see this happen….well none of this would have happened to ‘T’ if the flag had just gone up would it? I mean…”
Aina also shared his thoughts on Marinakis’ confrontation with manager Nuno Espirito Santo, saying he understood the owner’s intensity. He said:
“The owner just wants us to do well.
“He set up the club and the team for success and, like everyone is, he is fully invested in how well we do and how big the club grows. I have nothing but praise for him. I am so grateful to him and what he does for the club.”