The striker suffered a life-threatening abdominal injury when he collided with the post after chasing down a pass from Anthony Elanga late into the game. Elanga was offside in the build-up to the incident but the assistant referee did not raise their flag until the play was completed because of an offside protocol introduced in 2020.
This decision caused much controversy as the collision could have been prevented entirely if the rule was not introduced with teammate Ola Aina speaking to the Mail about how it was a clear and obvious offside.
"Anthony was miles offside. The whole world could see and so could I from where I was.
"You think 'offside' straight away. Surely you could just lift the flag up?
"None of this would have happened to 'T' if the flag had just gone up, would it?"
Now, as reported by the BBC, Forest are set to open an internal review into the episode and establish why Awoniyi was allowed to continue playing despite being in an offside position. Head coach Nuno Espirito Santo had been given the thumbs up by Forest’s medical team for Awoniyi to continue playing against Leicester but owner Evangelos Marinakis was furious with the decision from the medical staff and called it a “misjudgment” on their behalf in a statement on Sunday night:
“Everybody – coaching staff, players, supporters and including myself – we were frustrated around the injury of Taiwo and the medical staff’s misjudgment on Taiwo’s ability to continue the game. This is natural, this is a demonstration of the passion we feel for our club. Let’s all be grateful, passionate and keep on dreaming!”
The incident has raised questions about the offside law that was introduced by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) for the 2020-21 Premier League season following the introduction of the video assistant referee (VAR). This may soon be overturned if incidents such as this keep occurring as players wellbeing is put at risk.