Taiwo Awoniyi health update with Nottingham Forest star recovering in hospital after emergency abdominal surgery
NOTTINGHAM Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi is out of an induced coma and recovering well after his urgent abdominal surgery.
The striker ruptured his intestine after colliding with the goalpost during Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Leicester and was rushed to surgery on Monday.
He was put in an induced coma to regulate his heart rate and restrict his movement but head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has confirmed that he is now doing well.
He said in Friday’s press conference ahead of Sunday’s away clash with West Ham: “He went to surgery and surgery went well, thank God.
“He is on observation now. He is recovering. We are concerned but we are positive.
“It has been very difficult on us and on everybody.”
There was outrage over the in-match handling of Awoniyi’s injury as the club’s owner Evangelos Marinakis came on to the field to voice his frustrations on the matter.
SunSport understands that he is set to launch an investigation into the incident.
The striker was allowed to continue playing despite his obvious pain and many blamed the ill-fitting offside rules for the injury occurring.
Forest said in a statement: “The truth of the matter is there was no confrontation with Nuno or with others, either on the pitch or inside the stadium.
“There was only shared frustration between all of us that the medical team should never have allowed the player to continue.”
Football’s offside rules are again being scrutinised as Awoniyi’s awful collision could have been prevented if play was stopped earlier.
Anthony Elanga was in a clear offside position when he released the pass that Awoniyi was chasing when he got hurt.
It was not flagged and play was allowed to continue, leading to the incident.
This is due to an IFAB rule which states delaying the flag is ‘only permissible in a very clear attacking situation when a player is about to score a goal or has a clear run into/towards the opponents’ penalty area.’
The rule, introduced in 2021, favours the run of play by directing the linesman to keep their flag down if there is any element of doubt over the offside position.
This allows offside technology to make the tight call instead of the fallible human eye and prevents onside goals be wrongly ruled out.
Frustration arises, however, when obvious offsides are not called and players get injured in runs of play that should have been stopped earlier.
Speaking on Ref Watch, Stephen Warnock said: “Surely common sense has to kick into gear at some point.
“If it’s two or three yards [offside] and something in your mind is thinking, ‘is it offside or isn’t it? I’m not so sure here’. Then keep your flag down, I understand that.
“But that? Just put your flag up.”
Awoniyi will be kept in hospital for observation for at least five days.
Nuno hopes that he will be able to return to Forest’s training ground after that to see the players and staff.