Taiwo Awoniyi: Nottingham Forest defender Ola Aina questions offside directive after abdominal injury to striker

Nottingham Forest defender Ola Aina has questioned the offside law which contributed to Taiwo Awoniyi's injury during the draw with Leicester.

The Forest striker collided with a post and suffered a ruptured intestine at the City Ground while attempting to latch onto a pass from Anthony Elanga.

The striker, who received lengthy treatment after the injury but then attempted to play on despite being in clear discomfort, required urgent abdominal surgery on Tuesday.

The incident, in which Leicester midfielder Facundo Buonanotte also collided with the upright, happened after Elanga was allowed to advance on goal, despite being clearly offside.

Play continued after assistant Sian Massey-Ellis delayed putting her flag up.

Aina has since questioned the offside law, which instructs officials to delay the flag unless they are 100 per cent certain a player is offside.

"Anthony [Elanga] was miles offside. The whole world could see and so could I from where I was," Aina told the Daily Mail.

"You think 'offside' straight away. Surely you could just lift the flag up?

"Having to see it out and then just see this happen. None of this would have happened to T [Awoniyi] if the flag had just gone up."

The offside controversy surrounding Awoniyi

The Awoniyi incident has reignited debate around football's offside rules.

Assistant referee Massey-Ellis kept her flag down in accordance with an IFAB directive which states that delaying the flag is only permissible in a very clear attacking situation when a player is about to score a goal or has a clear run into/towards the opponents' penalty area.

The PGMOL - which is in charge of the Premier League's refereeing laws and uses IFAB's directive when it comes to VAR protocol - is of the opinion that the assistant can raise the flag if they 100 per cent believe a player is offside. But if there is any element of doubt, they will keep the flag down.

Analysing the incident on Sky Sports' Ref Watch, Dermot Gallagher said: "You see her [Massey-Ellis] explaining to the [Leicester] goalkeeper, because even he queries why she hasn't flagged.

"You can clearly see she says, he's not far enough offside, I have to hold my flag. It's not the law - it's a directive.

"The law is offside, but the directive to the assistants is because we've got VAR, don't put your flags up early, if he puts it in the net you can then go back and check."

One of the benefits of that policy is to stop valid goals wrongly ruled out by an early flag, and help alleviate human error. It has been in place in the Premier League since 2021 and while incidents like Awoniyi's are rare, the Forest striker's injury has provoked a conversation on this ruling.

There have been calls around the Premier League for delaying the flag in obvious offside circumstances to be scrapped.

Speaking on Ref Watch, Stephen Warnock said: "Surely it has to be common sense, common sense has to kick into gear at some point.

"Common sense tells you: three or four yards, get your flag up and stop these things from happening. I'm not having a go at Sian Massey-Ellis, I'm talking about the rule makers in general.

"If it's two or three yards [offside] and something in your mind is thinking: is it offside or isn't it? I'm not so sure here. Then keep your flag down, I understand that.

"But that? Just put your flag up."

In December 2023, Man City defender John Stones picked up an injury during a phase of play that was later 'ruled out' for offside, prompting an angry response from Pep Guardiola.

He said: "I don't understand. It's so clear, the offside, and now he is injured. They say 'you're right Pep, you're right'... but it's late. It's not them [the officials], the rules come from the big bosses... but I don't understand."

And on the opening weekend of this season, when Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson went through on goal while clearly offside, Guardiola was seen remonstrating with the fourth official. Speaking on co-commentary, Gary Neville complained the process to flag him offside took "14 days".

Again, speaking on Ref Watch this week, Warnock added: "We're looking at [the Awoniyi incident] and going: is that what we've been waiting for? For something to happen to change the rules?

"Because we've all been saying it for years now where there could be a collision a and the assistant referee says: 'that was offside by the way'. We all knew it was, why haven't you made that decision?"

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