EPL: Nottingham’s Nuno Espirito Santo reveals Ola Aina’s disappointment at AFCON final loss

Ola Aina featured in all of Nigeria’s seven games at the AFCON 2023 tournament in Ivory Coast and was included in the competition’s team of the tournament.

Nottingham Forest head coach, Nuno Espirito Santo, has revealed that Super Eagles full-back, Ola Aina was left distraught after Nigeria lost the AFCON 2023 final to Ivory Coast, Soccernet.ng reports.

Nuno, former Tottenham Hotspur manager, took over at Nottingham Forest after the Reds sacked Steve Cooper. He got Forest off to a flying start, but that form has diminished as they’re yet to win a game in their last six outings.

One of the factors that played a huge role in their drop in form was the absence of four key players who were representing their nations at the AFCON 2023 tournament hosted in Ivory Coast.

Ibrahim Sangere, Willy Boly, Serge Aurier and Ola Aina were away on International duty at the AFCON 2023 tournament, hosted in Ivory Coast.

Three of those players returned to England as African Champions, with Ola Aina being the only exclusion as he returned with a silver medal, and the coach revealed the full-back wasn’t too happy about it.

“We expect him to arrive today. We mentioned it before, it was a final. Ibrahim, Boly and Serge are champions, and congratulations to them, but Ola is disappointed. Hopefully, he’ll have another chance in the future,” the Portuguese tactician told the club’s official website in his pre-match conference ahead of their Premier League clash against West-Ham United tomorrow.

Nottingham Forest are currently ranked 16th on the Premier League table and have garnered 21 points from 24 games.