Nottingham Forest’s head coach, Nuno Espirito Santo, has revealed the reason Super Eagles defender, Ola Aina, didn’t feature in his side’s FA Cup victory against Exeter last night, Soccernet.ng reports.
The 28-year-old defender has played in every English Premier League game for the Reds this season, scoring two goals and providing one assist, but wasn’t even on the bench for their FA Cup game yesterday.
His national compatriot, Taiwo Awoniyi, found the back of the net in the 37th minute but had to be stretchered off later in the game after he suffered a concussion alongside a broken nose.
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Exeter, despite being a League One side, held on to a draw and were knocked out on penalties by Forest, who benched most of their first-team players, including Ola Aina.
Their manager, Nuno, was quizzed after the game if he was sure he made the right decision to put the team’s best players on the bench. His response revealed he gave minutes to those deserving to play in the tournament.
“It’s not about resting [players], it’s about how we are approaching the competition. We did the same at Luton, and we’re going to probably do the same [again] because, unfortunately, we cannot give minutes to all the players.
Ola Aina’s contract at the City Ground runs out at the end of this season, and the club are confident they’ll keep the former Chelsea man beyond this summer.