Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espírito Santo has revealed that Ola Aina played the AFCON 2023 final with injury.
Nuno disclosed this while speaking in his pre-match pressed ahead of this weekend’s game with Aston Villa.
Aina was one of the standout performer for the Super Eagles at the AFCON 2023.
But it was a final to forget for Aina who was not at his best as the Eagles lost 2-1 to hosts Côte d’Ivoire.
The right-back had a torrid time against Simon Adingra, who provided the assist for the winner scored by Sebastien Haller.
Despite his poor performance in the final, Aina was named in the Team of the Tournament alongside William Troost-Ekong and Ademola Lookman.
Also Read: Cameroon Can’t Stop Super Falcons Olympics Dream — Plumptre
Aside Aina, Nuno also disclosed that Ivorian AFCON winners Ibrahim Sangare and Wily Boly are down with injury.
“We have some problems,” Nuno was quoted on Nottingham Post.
“The three players who returned are not available. All of them – Ola, Willy and Ibrahim – came with injuries, so they will not be available for this match. We don’t have a date for their return.
“Ola got injured in the semi-final and played the final with an injury, he tried but didn’t really play in the final. Ibrahim the same, he was struggling since he was there at the AFCON. So the three of them are not available, which is bad for us.”
9 Comments
No wonder Ola aina was a shadow of himself in the final. Honesty, I blame to coach for fielding and unfit player in a final match with the kind of rich bench Nigeria..what was Bright osayi and Awaziam doing on the bench? I’m sure if one of them had played that wing will have leaked and the story will have been different. Peserio is 100% to blame . He must go . SE deserve a flexible and more knowledgeable Coach
We all suspected it and it was a major reason we lost the final match. We practically handed over the Afcon trophy to CIV. Both wingers were really not in the match and it affected the whole team. Adingra wouldn’t have beaten a fit Aina for the second goal. He made the Afcon 11 team of the tournament for a reason.
And the NFF supposedly has a medical team. They couldn’t detect Aina was unfit and advise Paseiro accordingly. They misdiagnosed Umar Sadiq’s injury and advised Paseiro to release him. When will NFF sack the current medical backroom team? They’re practically unfit for the job and costing us.
This is rather sad.
Like I’ve stated before, we lost that final a lot more from a physical perspective than a tactical perspective.
CIV had fresher players than us. We had used almost the same line up all tournament, but the CIV team went through some sort of recycling begining from the knockouts. The likes of Kossonou, Ndicka,Seri, Haller, Adingra only became regulars in the knockouts. Prevuious Untouchables like Kessie, Sangare, Boly, Boga, Doumbia and Krasso were given a place on the bench.
Playing 7 straight games in such energy sapping fashion in a matter of weeks was going to push our player beyond physical and metal limits.
To now learn that Aina was playing through the pain barrier leaves a sour taste in the mouth of what should have been.
Osimhen was not fully fit, Aina was not fully fit, Zaidu was only returning from injury, Chukwueze was as useless as he has been for 2 straight AFCONs now……that’s already minus 4 from our starting line up in that final match.
Man is not a machine….! Even machines do have their own breaking points.
If Aina was unfit and choose to play despite… then he was very unprofessional… He should have said so. Getting to the finals is never easy and we just gave the cup away with only 30minutes to play for.
And iwobi and bassey just destroy onana and Man U.
Destroy? 1-2? Destroy? LMAO.. Oboy you can never make it as a commentator. Hope you know?
Loll, that’s why I’m not a commentator now, they sha destroy Man U. See that iwobi goal, be like penalty.
Na so o my brother… This is the reason I want an attacking minded coach to be in charge of Super Eagles, someone who will play our player in their natural position. Peseiro is the reason Iwobi was heavily criticised at the concluded afcon, he would have save the dude by substituting him off when it’s obvious dude is not inform that day. We need a better attacking minded coach.
Confirms what I’ve been hammering from the beginning that our coach was complicit in our loosing this Afcon. Its just so sad. Our fate was sealed when the man failed to freshen up the squad in key areas from the match against Cameroun and thereafter.
I won’t be crying for Paseiro if his contract is not renewed.