After almost two years out with a serious knee injury, which threatened his playing career, Julian Bennett isn’t ready to make his Forest first team return.
Nicky Shorey is still a ‘possible option’, maybe, for Billy Davies although in the meantime it is Chris Cohen that will start the season at left back.
The Forest manager, as he told The Nottingham Post, is not prepared to risk Bennett and even though Cohen is a midfielder primarily Davies says that he’ll play where he is asked to play: ‘it is a big ask for Julian, because he has not played for 20 months.
‘But we have a great player to fill this position, in the form of Chris Cohen.
‘He gets paid to play for Forest and he will be playing at left-back. He is what we have got. He is what we have available to us.
‘He has played at left-back during our pre-season games and he will continue to do so. Unless things change, whether Chris likes it or not, he will have to play in that position and do a good job for us, as he is capable of doing.’
It might seem as though Davies is being quite ‘forceful’ in his assessment of things and what Cohen will do although he also stressed that Cohen understands the situation and is happy to oblige, at least until a new left back can come in, if this happens…
Bennett is also set to be loaned out until January, and his ‘position as a Nottingham Forest player’ will then be assed after this: ‘I made it clear to Julian at the end of last season that the objective would be to get him out on loan until January.
‘Then we will bring him back and assess his position as a Nottingham Forest player.’
Do you think that Julian Bennett is going to have a long-term future as a Forest player, and are you also happy to see Chris Cohen filling in at left back in the meantime?
Share your thoughts with us here on Vital Forest.
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