Arsenal loanee Oleksandr Zinchenko finally made his comeback from injury on Thursday night, playing 90 minutes for Nottingham Forest away to Utrecht.
Seven weeks after his last appearance for Nottingham Forest, Arsenal loanee Oleksandr Zinchenko was named in the starting lineup for a Europa League match away to Utrecht on Thursday night.
Zinchenko’s injury initially hadn’t appeared to be nearly so serious, with Sean Dyche only suggesting it was “touch and go” whether the player could be back in action that same weekend.
But Dyche later admitted the injury was “going to be a bit longer than we thought”, and Zinchenko ended up missing the next month and a half of action. So it was encouraging to see him back in the squad and back in the team on Thursday.
Zinchenko really should have opened the scoring in the early minutes, with a fantastic chance falling to him at close range in the 11th minute. But the loanee perhaps showed his rustiness as his side-footed effort went quite a way wide.
Forest did eventually take the lead through Arnaud Kalimuendo in the 52nd minute, but they were pegged back by a set-piece goal in the 73rd. There was no blame attached to Zinchenko for the goal concession, as he was on the other side of the box marking someone else.
Zinchenko’s team did end up taking all three points after Igor Jesus slotted a shot home with two minutes to go, giving the side a 2-1 victory.
At this point in mid-December, it’s not ideal that Zinchenko has only made seven appearances for Forest. But now that he’s fit again, the hope will be that he can get a run of games going in the second half of the campaign.