Michael Hefele was expected to be back in training for Nottingham Forest, but he doesn’t feature on any media content coming out of the club which suggests he may not be fully fit or working with the first-team. Sarah Clapson of Nottinghamshire Live said on September 10 that the centre-back is ‘still sidelined’.
The 29-year-old has been recovering from a serious Achilles injury and hasn’t played a game for more than eight months. Hefele’s last appearance for Forest came against Leeds United on January 1, 2019 – he came off five minutes into the match and has been sidelined ever since.
Hefele was told by Sabri Lamouchi that he could leave this summer, missed all of pre-season and hasn’t played a single minute of football in 2019/20. The German also has Michael Dawson, Joe Worrall, Tobias Figueredo, Chema, Jack Robinson and Alexander Milosevic ahead of him in the pecking order, so he’s unlikely to feature.
The last update from Hefele on Instagram came in June and featured him on a team-bonding exercise. His last update on Twitter also came in June saw him travelling with the Forest squad for a pre-season tour of Spain but he didn’t feature in any game.
Lamouchi has six defenders at his disposal – seven when Yohan Benalouane returns – so he doesn’t need Hefele. The fact he tried to offer the centre-back out over the summer speaks volumes too. Hefele may still need work on his fitness, but whether he’ll work with the first-team again remains to be seen.
