Aina set for long-awaited forest return against Aston Villa

Super Eagles defender Ola Aina could make his long-awaited return to senior football tomorrow  when Nottingham Forest visit Aston Villa in a Premier League clash at Villa Park.

The Nigerian fullback has not featured for Forest’s first team since August after suffering a hamstring injury that ruled him out of action for several months. The setback also led to his removal from the club’s Premier League and Europa League squads in September, effectively delaying his comeback until the January registration window.

Despite returning to full training weeks ago, Aina remained ineligible for selection until recently. To regain match fitness, the versatile defender featured twice for Nottingham Forest’s B team, logging a combined 153 minutes in games against Wolves U21s and Millwall U21s.

Those appearances have now paved the way for a potential first-team recall, with Forest manager Sean Dyche confirming that Aina is once again available for selection following the reopening of the registration window.

“Ola comes back into the group now, which is good,” Dyche said on Thursday. “He’s in contention and back in the squad. He’s got a lot of miles on the clock because he couldn’t come back into the squad before January anyway.”

Dyche added that the defender has fully recovered from injury and is physically ready, raising hopes of Aina’s first senior outing in months as Forest look to bolster their defensive options.