Taiwo Awoniyi is now out of an induced coma and recovering well after undergoing emergency surgery for a serious abdominal injury that had the potential to be life-threatening. The 27-year-old Nigerian international sustained the injury after colliding with the post during Nottingham Forest’s 2-2 draw against Leicester City on Sunday afternoon, which resulted in a ruptured intestine.
Remarkably, the former Liverpool youngster continued playing following the incident, which occurred in the 88th minute at the City Ground, before he was eventually brought off after struggling to move, reducing his team to 10 men after Nuno Espirito had used all of his subs. He was placed in a coma earlier this week to allow surgeons to carry out intensive procedures, which have now been successfully completed, the Daily Mail has reported.
The injury occurred as Awoniyi chased a cross from Anthony Elanga, who had been allowed to play on despite being clearly offside (watch the incident below). This has reignited debate around the IFAB rule that instructs assistant referees to delay raising the offside flag when a potential goalscoring opportunity is in progress, especially in light of the injury’s seriousness, as recently explained by a doctor.
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Doctor Explains How Serious Awoniyi's Injury Could Have Been
The forward's injury could have been fatal
Taiwo Awoniyi
Dr Gareth Nye from the University of Salford has since underlined how serious Awoniyi's situation was. "Reports suggest he has suffered a ruptured intestine, also known as gastrointestinal perforation, caused by the collision with the goal post during the game," he explained to the Daily Star, pointing out that this type of injury carries the risk of sepsis and is always considered an emergency.
"In essence, you have undigested food, stomach acid, enzymes designed to break down tissue and bacteria from inside your intestines, suddenly having free reign around your abdominal pelvic region, which has huge consequences to the patient. Because of this, risk of death can be as high as 50%."
On the procedure itself, he continued: "Patients typically have emergency surgery to remove damaged tissue, repair the hole and clean the region. They will then be placed on what's called bowel rest, which means nil by mouth essentially and given strong antibiotics to lower infection risk.
"In some cases patients may have a colostomy or ileostomy which allows the contents of your intestines to empty into a bag, through a stoma, a hole created in your abdomen. This may be temporary allowing healing to occur uninterrupted which would then require a second surgery to reattach the intestines. In other cases, the surgery is permanent.
"He had surgery on Monday night and remains in hospital, with the rest of the procedure set to be completed on Wednesday, which suggests he has had multistage surgery to protect the intestines described above."