Gonzalo Montiel hasn’t appeared on the field for Nottingham Forest since February; there might be a deeper motive for this.

The Argentine hasn’t been on the field since he was last seen in the Garibaldi, limping out of the FA Cup replay against Bristol City.

Nuno Espirito Santo has previously claimed to be hurt. The star player for Forest, Montiel, was benched against Aston Villa, therefore there might be another explanation for his lack of playing time.

Forest and Gonzalo Montiel have reached a permanent signing agreement.
It was negotiated when the Reds agreed to sign Montiel on loan that he would leave permanently after making a predetermined amount of appearances. He needs just eight more City Ground trips to reach that mark.
Is it therefore a matter that Forest currently prefers other options? Maybe because the team is currently in danger of going down, the Reds are interested in activating the loan clause for Montiel.

It is reported that should Montiel play eight more games, Forest will have to pay out £9 million. With just ten Premier League games left, it’s possible that a decision is being made behind closed doors for the Reds.

With the World Cup winner, Forest needs to exercise caution.
The last thing Forest wants is to drop to the lower leagues, pay Sevilla £9 million for Montiel, and then be stuck with a high-paid player they can’t get rid of.
We believe that there is a genuine belief that Montiel is being excluded at this time in order to prevent reaching the milestone amount of games, as there are only 10 games left.

Espirito Santo will be praying that he can field his best eleven when Forest plays Luton on Saturday. Neco Williams has actually been outstanding lately, therefore it would be unfair to bench the Wales international for that game.

But Montiel’s recent exclusion has been a little puzzling. In light of this, it will be interesting to see if the World Cup winner is truly hurt or if the team is simply picking and choosing which games he participates in.