Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has provided a fresh update on the fitness status of Super Eagles defender Ola Aina ahead of the Tricky Trees’ upcoming Premier League clash against Fulham, Footynaija.com reports.
Aina has missed over three months of action after undergoing a hamstring surgery back in September. As a result of his injury, the Nigeria international did not play a single game during Ange Postecoglou’s short-lived reign at The City Ground and is still yet to feature under current boss Dyche.
He however appears to be edging closer to a return after featuring for Nottingham Forest’s U21s in their narrow 2-1 victory over Millwall’s U21s. He logged 63 minutes in that game, taking a significant step towards regaining full fitness.
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Speaking ahead of his side’s trip to Craven Cottage on Monday night, Forest boss Dyche updated the media on the current fitness status of his squad.
“It’s looking better,” Dyche said of the injury situation in quotes revealed by Nottingham Post. “Woody is still recovering on the grass at the moment. He is not with us yet but is recovering.
“Ola [Aina] is halfway through his progress in fitness. He is training more regularly with the team now, which is good, but it has been a long-term injury, so we have had to be careful with that one.
“He’s still a bit of a way off with his true fitness. He has been out for a long time, and it takes even longer to reach that deep level of fitness, but he is making good progress forward.
“Pretty much everyone else is back on the grass. They still have to get total match fitness. We can only play so many games and B Team games, but they are getting there.”
How long it will take for Aina to return to competitive action remains uncertain and his fitness struggles have already affected the Super Eagles, who must now make do without him at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
