Nottingham Forest defender Danny Fox was sold to Wigan Athletic for £300k on Tuesday, ending a four-and-a-half-year stay at the City Ground. The 32-year-old made 127 appearances in all competitions for Forest and was still a regular for much for the 2018/19 campaign – he was captain just a couple of weeks ago.
With the Reds suffering an injury crisis at the back, Fox was being used at left-back and centre-back, so his sale is surprising. The Scottish international was out of contract at the end of the campaign, so surely it would have made sense to retain his services for another few months. Martin O’Neill may have thought Jack Robinson and Ben Osborn at left-back were enough.
The Midlands outfit have problems at centre-back, however, which is why O’Neill decision to ship Fox was a strange one. Forest have Tobias Figueiredo, Michael Dawson, Yohan Benalouane and Michael Hefele at their disposal, but Hefele is out for the season while Dawson and Figueiredo are both sidelined with short-term injuries.
O’Neill will have a selection headache ahead of Forest’s trip to St Andrews to face Birmingham City. The Reds could go within a point of the Championship playoffs if they come out on top. Without Fox, however, they may have to name a makeshift backline.
Crippy Cooke’s previous article
Nottingham Forest ‘have made an approach’ for outcast who has the ‘green light to leave’ his club
