Nottingham Forest forward Taiwo Awoniyi is out of an induced coma after having urgent surgery following an abdominal injury sustained during Sunday’s match against Leicester City. The 27-year-old was injured when he collided with a goal post in the 2-2 draw against Leicester in the Premier League on Sunday and was taken to hospital on Monday after further investigations by the Forest medical team. Having had the first part of the surgery on Monday, the forward spent Tuesday in an induced coma as medical staff monitored his progress as part of the procedure. Awoniyi had the second stage of the operation, including closing the wound, on Wednesday, BBC reports.

On Tuesday, Nottingham Forest said that Awoniyi is recovering well following urgent surgery.

Awoniyi had only been introduced as a substitute five minutes earlier when he collided hard into a post as he attempted to score the winning goal.

It later turned out that Elanga had been offside but the sideline official didn’t raise their flag until after Awoniyi had struck the post. Awoniyi had tried to carry on playing despite being in clear discomfort after a lengthy treatment.

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis came on to the pitch after the game to express his concern to Espirito Santo over how Awoniyi’s injury was handled, sparking a heated discussion on the field between the club’s owner Marinakis and manager Nuno Espirito Santo.

However, Nottingham Forest in its statement claimed the reports of a confrontation with head coach Nuno Espirito Santo as “fake news”.

“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 among all of us that the medical team should never have allowed the player to continue.

In light of this, we urge former coaches and players, and other public figures in the game, to resist the urge to rush to judgment and fake news online, especially when they do not have the full facts and context.

“Baseless and ill-informed outrage for the purposes of personal social media traction serves no one — least of all the injured player. We call on these influential voices to show the same respect for player welfare that they often demand from others. Let concern come before commentary,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.

–IANS

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