Nottingham Forest defender Gaetan Bong has been hit with a three-game ban by the Football Association after an incident against Coventry City.
The incident came in the 45th minute of the Championship opener at the Coventry Building Society Arena, where the 33-year-old appeared to strike Coventry's Callum O'Hare in the face during a set-play.
This was deemed as "violent conduct" by the FA, and importantly, "was not seen by the match officials at the time but it was caught on camera".
The full statement, posted at midday on Wednesday (11 August) reads as follows:
"Regulation and Discipline update:"
"Gaetan Bong will be suspended for Nottingham Forest FC's next three matches following a breach of FA Rule E1.1.
"The defender's behaviour during the 45th minute of their EFL Championship game against Coventry City FC on Sunday [08/08/21] was not seen by the match officials at the time but it was caught on camera.
"Gaetan Bong subsequently admitted that this behaviour constitutes violent conduct and he accepted the standard penalty"
That standard penalty means that the defender will miss tonight's first round Carabao Cup tie against Bradford City, as well as the next two league games against Bournemouth and Blackburn Rovers.
The defender was only drafted back into the first team from the 'bomb squad' recently due to a shortage of options at left-back.
Before Sunday, the full-back's last appearance in the Garibaldi was in March 2021 during the 1-1 draw at Brentford.
The departures of Tyler Blackett (permanent move to FC Cincinnati), Nicholas Ioannou (loan to Como 1907), and Yuri Ribeiro (contract not extended) meant that Bong was the only senior man left standing in the position Trentside.
The full-back area has, however, been bolstered following the loan signing of Arsenal's Jordi Osei-Tutu.
