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Topics: Nottingham Forest, Premier League, Ange Postecoglou, Injury, Football
Marcus Banks
Topics: Nottingham Forest, Premier League, Ange Postecoglou, Injury, Football
Nottingham Forest have made a change to their Premier League squad days after Ange Postecoglou replaced Nuno Espirito Santo.
The Portuguese manager was relieved of his duties after a breakdown in relationship with club owner Evangelos Marinakis despite leading Nottingham Forest to Europe last season with a seventh-placed finish in the Premier League.
Nuno called out the club’s summer transfer business during the early weeks of the Premier League as the cracks in the relationship started to appear in public.
He was swiftly replaced by former Celtic boss Postecoglou who was sacked by Tottenham three months earlier despite ending their 17-year trophy drought by defeating Manchester United to win the Europa League.
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Postecoglou faces a difficult start to life at the City Ground with all four of his first games being away from home starting with a trip to face Arsenal.
To make matter worse, just days after his appointment, Forest have been forced into a change in the Premier League squad list.
Star full-back Ola Aina has been removed after the defender suffered a serious injury in Nigeria’s World Cup qualifier against South Africa according to the Telegraph.
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Scans reveal he will be sidelined until early December at the earliest and will be replaced on the squad list by former Liverpool striker Taiwo Awoniyi who has been left out of the club’s Europa League player list.
The new Forest boss has been handed a further headache for his first match in charge as new signing Oleksandr Zinchenko is ineligible to face his parent club.
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Zinchenko could have allowed Neco Williams to switch from left to right-back.
Instead, Postecoglou could hand a debut to Nicolo Savona, a £13m summer signing from Juventus.
Aina had played every Premier League minute before his injury and was a key player for Nuno last season.
The defender penned a new three-year deal in July amid speculation he could leave the club on a free transfer.
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Ahead of the Arsenal fixture, Postecoglou said: “My thing I do know is that every Premier League fixture is challenging. Against clubs that are challenging for honours or others that are fighting for other things, it’s a great game.
“Mikel [Arteta] has got them off to a good start. I think they’ve strengthened over the summer for sure. They’re a stronger team than they were last year so they will be a great challenge for us.”