{"id":878996,"date":"2025-12-19T23:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T05:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/19\/nigeria-stars-aina-and-awoniyi-lead-the-drive-as-forest-take-christmas-to-hospitals-children\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T23:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T05:22:09","slug":"nigeria-stars-aina-and-awoniyi-lead-the-drive-as-forest-take-christmas-to-hospitals-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/19\/nigeria-stars-aina-and-awoniyi-lead-the-drive-as-forest-take-christmas-to-hospitals-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria stars Aina and Awoniyi lead the drive as Forest take Christmas to hospitals, children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soccer <\/p>\n

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Taiwo Awoniyi and Nottingham Forest stars. Photo Credit: official club website. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nigeria internationals Ola Aina<\/a> and Taiwo Awoniyi have stepped into the heart of Nottingham Forest\u2019s Christmas outreach programme, using the festive period to give back to the local community, Soccernet.ng reports<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This is even as both players stars continue their recovery from injuries that ruled them out of Nigeria\u2019s 2025 Africa Cup of Nations<\/a> squad.<\/p>\n

The two Super Eagles<\/a> stars were involved at different points in Forest\u2019s wide-ranging \u2018Home For Christmas\u2019 campaign, a club-led initiative designed to support children, families and vulnerable groups across Nottingham during the festive season.<\/p>\n

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Nigeria\u2019s Taiwo Awoniyi and Ola Aina. Copyright: IMAGOxMIxNewsx original<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aina has been sidelined since sustaining an injury while on international duty against South Africa in September, a setback that halted his momentum for club and country.<\/p>\n

However, the former Chelsea<\/a> full-back has stepped up his recovery and featured in a reserve fixture this week, placing him on course for a competitive return early in the new year.<\/p>\n

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Nigeria and Nottingham Forest star Taiwo Awoniyi. Photo by IMAGO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Awoniyi, by contrast, remains further behind in his rehabilitation. The striker has made just four Premier League appearances this season, with a persistent knock keeping him out of Forest\u2019s last five matches, including fixtures against Liverpool<\/a>, Brighton, Wolves, Everton and Tottenham. Yet, despite their individual challenges, both players were central to Forest\u2019s festive activities off the pitch.<\/p>\n

Get Our Sports News First \u2013 Join Our WhatsApp Channel Now!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Soccer Nigeria\u2019s Aina and Awoniyi: Giving back beyond football<\/h2>\n

More than 150 children and young adults attended two Christmas parties hosted at the City Ground,<\/a> where festive games, food and meetings with Santa Claus were followed by surprise appearances from Forest players and staff.<\/p>\n

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Nigeria and Nottingham Forest star Ola Aina. Photo Credit: Aina\/IG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aina played a prominent role during a special Christmas press conference held for Warriors United, a club supporting children and young adults with learning disabilities. Acting as host, the Nigerian defender helped guide a lively Q&A alongside Santa Claus, Zach Abbott and Callum Hudson-Odoi, before joining the celebrations on the dancefloor.<\/p>\n

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Nigeria and Nottingham Forest star Ola Aina. Photo Credit: Aina IG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Earlier in the day, over 100 children from four local schools were welcomed into the Robin Hood Suite, where Forest head coach Sean Dyche and several first-team players dropped in to answer questions and share festive moments.<\/p>\n

Awoniyi\u2019s contribution came a day earlier at Queen\u2019s Medical Centre Children\u2019s Hospital, where he joined Dyche and seven other first-team players<\/a> on visits to children\u2019s wards. The group delivered gifts and spent time with families facing the prospect of spending Christmas in hospital.<\/p>\n

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Super Eagles and Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi and Nuno Espirito Santo. Photo by IMAGO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The visits form part of the wider \u2018Home For Christmas\u2019 campaign, spearheaded by owner Evangelos Marinakis, which focuses on tackling poverty, illness, homelessness and social isolation during the festive period.<\/p>\n

With Christmas still in the air, Nottingham Forest will return to football action on Monday when the Tricky Trees trade tackles with Fulham at Craven Cottage. Aina and Awoniyi are unlikely to feature in that fixture as Forest look to climb above their current 16th position on the Premier League table.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"<!--Imhonlamhen Eronmhonsele” src=”https:\/\/soccernet.ng\/app\/uploads\/2024\/12\/DSC_0327-copy-150×150.jpg” height=”80″ width=”80″>\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tImhonlamhen Eronmhonsele\t\t\t\t<\/a>
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\n\t\t\t\tA lifelong fan of Arsenal and the Super Eagles, Imhonlamhen is a football writer and editor at Soccernet.ng, where his journey as a journalist began more than six years ago. Since then, he has helped shape the platform\u2019s editorial voice and guided it toward some of its proudest milestones. <\/p>\n

With a background in Engineering and further training in journalism and digital media, Imhons brings both precision and passion to his storytelling. His love for football runs deep, but he also follows boxing, chess, and athletics with equal curiosity.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>Imhonlamhen Eronmhonsele<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soccer Taiwo Awoniyi and Nottingham Forest stars. Photo Credit: official club website. Nigeria internationals Ola Aina and Taiwo Awoniyi have stepped into the heart of Nottingham Forest\u2019s Christmas outreach programme, using the festive period to give back to the local community, Soccernet.ng reports. This is even as both players stars continue their recovery from injuries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":878997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27096,2005,913],"tags":[15956,10511],"class_list":["post-878996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nigeria","category-soccer","category-stars","tag-nigeria","tag-stars"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}