Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi is recovering well after coming out of an induced coma following emergency surgery, but the cause of his abdominal injury has sparked a debate over the delayed offside rule which was introduced in 2020, The PUNCH reports.

Awoniyi’s Forest and national team teammate, Ola Aina, confirmed he had tried to get in touch with the striker while he also fingered the offside rule for the cause of Awoniyi’s life-threatening injury.

The Nigerian striker was taken to hospital on Monday, having collided with a goalpost during his side’s 2-2 draw with Leicester City on Sunday.

He reportedly suffered a ruptured intestine from the incident, and had an initial medical procedure on Monday. He was then placed in an induced coma on Tuesday before having the second stage of his operation on Wednesday. He has since woken up from his induced coma.

‘I have sent him a message of course,” Aina told the Daily Mail.

“The whole team has, I have heard he is recovering well so hopefully we will hear from him soon.

“All we can do is show our support and hopefully everything goes well for him now. It’s horrible seeing someone you are close with go through something like this but I pray to God everything goes to plan.”

The injury to Awoniyi came after play was allowed to continue despite Forest player Anthony Elanga clearly appearing offside as the home side attacked. The assistant referee followed protocol by allowing the action to continue before flagging, but the extent of the former Union Berlin man’s injury has brought scrutiny on the law

Aina, 28, has now hit out at the Premier League and called for a return to the original regulations.

“You think ‘offside’ straight away. Surely you could just lift the flag up?

“Anthony [Elanga] was miles offside. The whole world could see and so could I from where I was.

“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.”

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.