Nuno Tavares is seemingly surplus to requirements at Nottingham Forest, and he’s expected to return to Arsenal in 2024.

On Friday night, Nottingham Forest took on Tottenham Hotspur, and it was the sixth game in a row that Arsenal loanee Nuno Tavares had been left out of the Forest squad.

There are still no reports to suggest Tavares is injured, and he continues to feature in training for his loan side.

The left-back was even pictured taking part in sessions with the squad this week, but it appears increasingly unlikely he has any prospect of selection on matchdays.

Nottingham Forest News suggest that Tavares is “failing to make the grade” at Forest, and the defender is “likely to head back to Arsenal”.

Tavares played in Forest’s first three games following his move, but he then picked up an injury forcing him out of action for a few matches.

The left-back returned to the bench against Liverpool in late October, and was on the bench again at home to Aston Villa the following week, but he didn’t come on in either fixture.

Since then, Tavares has disappeared from the squad completely.

After missing out on Forest’s defeat to West Ham, there were some signs that Tavares was unhappy, deleting his profile picture from his Instagram account.

Since then, Tavares has deleted his Instagram account completely.

This isn’t the first time Tavares has been involved in potential controversy on loan, following reports that he had problems with Marseille boss Igor Tudor during training sessions last season.

Tavares laughed off some of the claims on social media, but it’s certainly true that he was dropped and kicked out of training on a couple of occasions.

Nottingham Forest have a £12m option to buy in Tavares’ loan deal, with an additional £3m in potential add-ons. But it looks increasingly unlikely the club will activate that option.