Taiwo Awoniyi out of Nottingham Forest’s lineup due to fitness – Steve Cooper

Nottingham Forest manager, Steve Cooper has confirmed that his talisman, Taiwo Awoniyi is not fit enough to start games for the club at the moment.

Awoniyi recently returned to training after sustaining a knee injury before the season kicked off.

The 26-year-old came off the bench to pick up his goal-scoring form from last season as he opened his goal account for the 2023/24 season in Forest’s 2-1 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium last weekend.

Despite being on the sidelines for some part of last season, Awoniyi was Forest’s highest goal scorer with 10 league goals.

Speaking on the injuries to Awoniyi and Senegalese Moussa Niakhaté ahead of the game against Sheffield United, the coach said; “Both have had minutes in different ways and forms.

“Last week Taiwo came on at Arsenal, which was a slight risk because he hadn’t done much training but obviously, when the game is going on, and you’ve got an opportunity to do something like that, you take it.

“They’re in a much better place, both unlucky to pick up injuries as they did in unfortunate ways, but we’re past that now and we’re looking at how to get them back to full fitness and sooner rather than later, they’ll be available to start games, but now, not quite yet.”