Arsenal loanee Oleksandr Zinchenko was seemingly close to tears as he was forced out of Nottingham Forest’s game against FC Porto on Thursday due to injury.
Oleksandr Zinchenko is already under his third manager at Nottingham Forest. The Arsenal loanee joined the club during Nuno Espirito Santo’s tenure, made his Forest debut under Ange Postecoglou, then played his first game under Sean Dyche on Thursday night.
Yet his first game with Dyche in charge was far from ideal despite a 2-0 win, with the 28-year-old lasting less than 45 minutes against FC Porto.
Shortly before the half-time interval, Zinchenko was forced off the pitch with an injury, to be replaced by Nicolo Savona.
The Mirror report that Zinchenko appeared to injure his groin, and he seemed to be visibly upset as he left the field of play.
Considering Zinchenko’s lengthy injury history, any setback is likely to be a significant concern to the player and his club. In his three seasons at Arsenal, the defender missed 48 games through injury, and this isn’t even the first injury of his Nottingham Forest spell.
After playing the first four games of his loan, Zinchenko missed recent matches against Midtylland and Newcastle United with a groin injury, skipping the international break for the same reason.
A setback involving the same injury would certainly be frustrating and explain Zinchenko’s distress as he left the pitch.
In related news, fellow Arsenal loanee Jakub Kiwior was playing for FC Porto in the same game. Kiwior had played six games for Porto without the team conceding a single goal, so it would have been a shock to the system to lose the match 2-0.
All the same, Kiwior’s appearances so far will have earned him plenty of credit in the bank, and he wasn’t at fault for either of the penalties Forest scored from.
It was inevitable the team would eventually concede a goal or two, however well he’s played.