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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Alex Young

Ola Aina injury: Nottingham Forest handed nightmare issue ahead of Arsenal trip

Nottingham Forest have been handed an injury nightmare ahead of facing Arsenal as their tumultuous week takes another twist.

Monday saw manager Nuno Espirito Santo sacked following a falling out with owner Evangelos Marinakis, and on Tuesday morning former Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou was appointed as his successor.

Later on the same day, key defender Ola Aina was forced off just 10 minutes into Nigeria's 1-1 draw with South Africa with a suspected hamstring injury.

The defender was able to walk off the pitch, but cut a very frustrated figure as he was substituted in the opening stages of the game.

Ola Aina walked off the pitch inside 10 minutes (Cali Sports)

Should Aina's injury prove serious to rule him out of the weekend trip to the Emirates Stadium, it leave Postecoglou with an immediate issue to solve.

Nico Williams is the obvious solution to fill in at right-back, but Deadline Day signing Oleksandr Zinchenko is unable to face his parent club so the untested Nicolo Savona may come in at left-back.

Postecoglou's hopes of starting with a bang at Forest already looked slim with a trip to one of the Premier League title contenders before Aina's injury scare.

And the new manager does not have the most impressive record against the Gunners, losing three and draw one of the four north London derbies he took charge of at Spurs.

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