Forest defender says striker’s horrific injury could have been avoided if assistant had flagged earlier
Nottingham Forest defender Ola Aina has spoken out about the moment teammate Taiwo Awoniyi suffered a serious injury against Leicester City, saying that the incident could have been avoided if the offside flag had been raised sooner.
Nigeria striker Taiwo Awoniyi was injured late in Nottingham Forest’s 2-2 draw with Leicester last week, when he collided forcefully with the post while chasing a cross from Anthony Elanga. Elanga had in fact strayed offside in the buildup, but following the current offside protocol, the assistant referee waited until the passage of play ended before raising the flag.
“Anthony was miles offside,” Aina told The Daily Mail. “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 [Awoniyi] if the flag had just gone up would it?”
Awoniyi remarkably played through the remainder of the match despite clearly being in discomfort. It was later reported that the forward underwent urgent abdominal surgery and was placed in an induced coma to aid his recovery. He remains under close medical supervision.
Aina is not the only one to have questioned the offside protocol in the wake of the injury. Many fans and pundits feel that it has increased the risk of players getting hurt in scenarios that would have otherwise been flagged off earlier.
