Aston Villa fullback Nicky Shorey has thanked Nottingham Forest for their support earlier this season.

Shorey is winning praise for his time on-loan at Fulham, but he says his short spell with Forest was crucial in getting his match fitness back on track.

He told fulhamfc.com: "At the time I could have gone to another Premier League club but I didn't feel like that was the right move at the time. Then the window closed to go to a Premier League club so I had to go to a Championship club - that was the only route I had. Nottingham Forest were very interested and I've got to be honest, I probably wouldn't be here at Fulham if it wasn't for Forest giving me an opportunity to go and play games.

"I'll be forever thankful to them; I really enjoyed my time there with Billy Davies. I was looking forward to going back there until Fulham came in and I couldn't turn down the opportunity to join. When you're not playing, you just want to be playing games. I had no worries about dropping down a division to play games - the most important thing is to be playing."