Nottingham Forest have not won any of their last ten Premier League games without Taiwo Awoniyi.
Forest boss Steve Cooper will be hoping to end that run as his side take on Fulham in Wednesday’s Premier League clash at Fulham, but will do so without one of his key men.
The Nigerian forward is set for months on the sidelines after having surgery on a groin injury. Awoniyi was forced off an hour into his nation’s 1-1 draw with Lesotho before withdrawing from international duty.
He has already missed games against Brighton and Everton – with Forest losing both. The two-time European Cup winners haven’t won in the league without Awoniyi since beating Leeds 1-0 in February.
That match was the third in a run of nine games the Nigerian missed last season, also with a groin injury. Manager Steve Cooper said after Awoniyi’s latest setback: “It’s bad news on Taiwo, he’s had to have surgery and he is going to be out for months.
“We’ll support him and try to get him back as quick and as fit as he can be, but it’s a really unfortunate situation and a blow for him.”
Taiwo Awoniyi Stats
The injury came at the worst time for both player and club, with Awoniyi in good form for the Midlands outfit. So far this season, the 26-year-old has scored four goals in ten Premier League games.
Since joining last season, he has 15 goals and three assists in 41 appearances. The first of these was in his second Forest game, scoring the winner in a 1-0 victory over West Ham in August 2022.
Forest have a good record when the Nigerian has been on the scoresheet. In the 13 games he has scored in, they have won seven, drawn twice and lost only four.
Upon arriving from German Bundesliga side Union Berlin for a fee of around £17.5 million, he signed a five year deal. Awoniyi’s salary is reported to be around £50,000 a week at Forest. To date, he has amassed 75 career goals in 264 club appearances.
Awoniyi also has two senior international goals, making his full Nigeria debut in October 2021. He scored on his third cap, netting against Sudan in a 3-1 win in the Africa Cup of Nations. His next international goal was against São Tomé and Príncipe during AFCON qualification in September.
But with him now set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines it may be some time before we see him on the scoresheet again. Forest could be without Taiwo Awoniyi until well into the new year, with an exact return date unknown.
Who Is Taiwo Awoniyi?
Born in Ilorin, Nigeria on 27 August 1997, Awoniyi was spotted at a Coca-Cola football competition in London. He was then invited to join the Imperial Soccer Academy by former Wolves midfielder Seyi Olofinjana.
Coming from humble beginnings, Awoniyi’s family could not always afford football boots for him growing up. He would often sew up teammates’ torn and discarded boots in order to play.
“He wasn’t born with a silver spoon so to say,” recalled Atiba Bankole of the Imperial Soccer Academy in Nigeria.
“You have to give a lot of credit to his parents. They did a fantastic job of bringing him up and instilling the values that he’s now bringing to the fore in his everyday life,” he added.
One thing many may not realise is that Taiwo Awoniyi was once at Liverpool. In August 2015, he signed for the club for around £400,000, but did not make a senior appearance.
He was loaned out to German team FSV Frankfurt, the first of seven loans while at Liverpool. Upon joining Union Berlin in 2021 after a successful spell, he scored 25 goals in 65 appearances for the club.
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