Nottingham Forest confirmed why Matz Sels, Elliot Anderson, Ola Aina and Omari Hutchinson missed the open training at the City Ground
Elliot Anderson was rested for Nottingham Forest open training on Saturday while Ola Aina is following a separate programme(Image: (Photo by Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images))
Nottingham Forest have explained the absence of Matz Sels, Elliot Anderson, Ola Aina and Omari Hutchinson from Saturday’s open training amid fitness worries.
The Forest squad welcomed fans to watch them train at the City Ground but the quartet were absent.
Prior to the session, a club statement update: “Matz Sels and Elliot Anderson are resting following their recent international commitments, while Ola Aina and Omari Hutchinson are continuing with individual training programmes and will not be present with the group today.”
All four featured in the starting line-up that defeated Tottenham prior to the international break and are expected to be involved across the next seven days.
For now, though, their workloads are being carefully monitored with Forest facing four fixtures in 10 days, beginning with a Europa League quarter-final first leg at Porto next Thursday.
Three straight home matches follow that encounter, with the return leg sandwiched between clashes with Aston Villa and Burnley.
Vitor Pereira spoke after the training session and said: “My message to the supporters is: you are our family, and as a family, in the hard times we need to fight together and we need to be together.
“You are the essence of football and this club, and we will do everything to put a smile on your faces.
“The fans are fantastic. We thank you so much for coming here and supporting us, and we will do our best to keep making them proud.
“They have the quality and the character; we’ve just wanted to give them the confidence to play at the level that they can. We need the supporters to support them in the good and the bad moments.
“We’ll take it game by game and focus on the next game. We’ll go there to win the game. This is what we are: strong inside, ready to fight, ready to compete and do our best to win games and celebrate with our supporters.”
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! Get all the Nottingham Forest latest via our Facebook page