Nottingham Forest have confirmed that striker Taiwo Awoniyi is recovering after urgent surgery on a serious abdominal injury, and that the injury was sustained during the club’s Premier League match against Leicester City.
The Injury
Awoniyi, on as a substitute after the interval, collided with a goalpost late in the match while going for a cross from Anthony Elanga. The fixture at the City Ground on Sunday 11 May ended in a 2-2 draw.
Elanga was offside in the build up, and the delayed offside flag meant play continued. Awoniyi received several minutes of treatment on the pitch. He signalled that he could continue and stayed on, in visible discomfort, leaving Forest effectively a player down for the closing stages.
Nuno Espirito Santo used his final substitution in the first minute of stoppage time, sending on Jota Silva for Elliot Anderson, the Associated Press reported. The change was made only after Awoniyi had indicated he was able to play on, by which point Forest had no further substitutions available.
Surgery and the Induced Coma
Awoniyi was taken to hospital on the Monday and had urgent surgery that night for a serious abdominal injury. He was placed in an induced coma as part of his recovery, a step intended to restrict his movement and regulate his heart rate, PA reported on the Tuesday. His condition was not said to be life threatening.
Forest had two league games left at that point, away to West Ham and at home to Chelsea, as they chased Champions League qualification, the Associated Press reported.
What the Club Said
In a statement, Nottingham Forest said: “Nottingham Forest can confirm that Taiwo Awoniyi is recovering well so far following urgent surgery on a serious abdominal injury sustained during Sunday’s match against Leicester City.”
The club added: “The seriousness of his injury is a powerful reminder of the physical risks in the game, and why a player’s health and well-being must always come first.”
The Marinakis Exchange
After the final whistle, the club’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, went onto the pitch and remonstrated with Espirito Santo. The manager said the exchange arose from a miscommunication between the bench and the medical staff, the Associated Press reported.
The club said there was “no confrontation, with Nuno or with others, either on the pitch or inside the stadium”, and that there was “only shared frustration between all of us that the medical team should never have allowed the player to continue”. It described the reaction of Marinakis as “one of deep care, responsibility, and emotional investment in one of our own”.
The Rule Under Scrutiny
The incident renewed scrutiny of the Premier League rule that keeps play going on a goalscoring opportunity even when a player is clearly offside in the build up, iNews reported. The provision is intended to let a move run its course before the offside decision is taken, and the delayed flag is what allowed the passage of play in which Awoniyi was injured.
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Sources: iNews, https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/nottingham-forest-taiwo-awoniyi-induced-coma-surgery-3692612; Associated Press, via the Daily Mail wires, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-14706751/Forest-striker-Awoniyi-undergoes-surgery-injury-sparked-Marinakis-spat.html; OneFootball, https://onefootball.com/en/news/in-full-nottingham-forest-statement-on-taiwo-awoniyi-as-club-address-evangelos-marinakis-storming-pitch-41108548
Photo: Arne Mu00f6seler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons.
Illustrative: Nottingham Forest's City Ground, seen from the air, with the River Trent and Trent Bridge alongside, photographed in August 2023. The photograph does not show the incident or any person described in the article.
