'It was a mess': Nuno will have two Nottingham Forest stars available after bizarre international situation

10/20/2024 05:09 AM

Nottingham Forest take on Crystal Palace at the City Ground tomorrow night with three points in the sights of the Reds.

The club’s home form has been poor this season with just two points coming from games against Bournemouth, Wolves and Fulham.

During the international break, several Forest players headed off to play for their respective countries, with varying levels of success.

Morgan Gibbs-White was forced to withdraw from the England squad through injury, whilst Nikola Milenkovic played twice for Serbia.

For Ola Aina and Taiwo Awoniyi, there was an unprecedented situation that wasn’t ideal for them.

Nigeria were left stranded at an airport for hours and ended up refusing to play a game against Libya.

Ahead of tomorrow night’s game under the City Ground lights, Nuno Espirito Santo has been quizzed on the pair and their wellbeing.

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What Nuno Espirito Santo said about Ola Aina and Taiwo Awoniyi

Forest need all their players available tomorrow night when Palace arrive on Trentside, with the visitors awaiting the first win of the campaign.

The Reds have some problems, with Gibbs-White and Ward-Prowse both suspended and Danilo and Ibrahim Sangare ruled out long-term.

Aina and Awoniyi are in good spirits despite their ordeal on international duty, however, and Espirito Santo expects to have both available for the Monday clash.

He said during his press conference: “As soon as it happened, the club reached them and tried to see what was going on. It was a mess.

“They arrived a couple of days ago and are working normally. They have overcome that. It was an incident and it’s not more important than that.”

Aina and Awoniyi will play their part for Forest this season

The Reds need to have all of their players available this season and Aina in particular is an important player in the dressing room.

He’s been cited as the one who gets the players pumped up before games and his influence isn’t unrecognised.

Forest need to ensure they have a backup to Chris Wood too and right now that is the role that Awoniyi playing in the team.

He won’t be happy being an impact substitute but with Wood in fine form that’s the role that he has to play right now.

It’s great to hear that the duo are feeling good ahead of the game with Palace and it will be fascinating to see what the two stars can do.