Nuno Espirito Santo provides Taiwo Awoniyi update and says referees need better ‘guidance’ after striker’s serious injury | OneFootball

Nuno Espírito Santo has called for improvements in the “guidance of referees” when there is a clear offside call to make, in the wake of Taiwo Awoniyi’s serious injury at the weekend.

The Nottingham Forest forward collided with the post in an attempt to get on the end of Anthony Elanga’s cross against Leicester and was taken to hospital on Monday with a serious abdominal injury that needed urgent surgery.

Awoniyi was placed into an induced coma while medical staff attended to him, before waking up on Wednesday post-surgery.

Team-mate Ola Aina told the Daily Mail “none of this would have happened if the flag had just gone up” due to the fact that Elanga had clearly been in an offside position before sending the cross into Awoniyi.

And giving his thoughts on the subject, Espirito Santo said: “Since this law came, there were immediately some concerns regarding that aspect of the game. That serious things can happen, or even in terms of the law, by themselves, if there’s a red card after an offside. How can you control all these situations?

“But they are aware. I think it’s more than anything about the law, because the law cannot change now for the next season. It’s about the guidance, the guidance of the referees when it’s so clear. Let’s try to avoid it.”

Providing an update on Awoniyi’s recovery, Nuno added: “He went to surgery. The surgery went well, thank god. So he’s on observation now, but I think he’s recovering.

“We still have to wait for the doctors to allow visits. And the families, his family are there. We are concerned, but we are positive.

“The information that we have is that at least five days, he has to be there under observation, so that everything goes well.

“I’ll try to visit him as soon as possible. He’s in good hands, and the family is there, which is what he really needs – the support there of the family.

“It has been very difficult because of the concern of the injury, the situation he went through.

“It’s been very difficult, very difficult on us and on everybody, the concern of the injury that he had, the situation that he entered through, it’s been hard on us.”

Forest will make the trip down to London this weekend, facing a West Ham side that have struggled for form, but will be hoping to use the momentum gained from their 2-0 win against Manchester United to their advantage.

“The mindset is simple,” Espirito Santo said. “I think it’s our last opportunity to try and fight for Champions League [football]. It’s as clear as that.

“We are talking about something so huge for us that everyone in the club has to give extra effort to achieve it. Us as a group of professionals, we are focused, we are determined, and we are preparing ourselves hard, training hard, assessing the players and finding solutions.

“But we’re going to face a tough team, West Ham. Tough team. Good players, good squad. [Graham] Potter is there doing his job. So it’s going to be tough for us.”