Steve Cooper has spoken to Chelsea about Andrei Santos – and says the midfielder will get his chance at Nottingham Forest.
The Brazilian’s only appearance since joining on loan was against Burnley in the Carabao Cup.
Santos, 19, has been on the bench in the Premier League but is yet to come off – and he sparked speculation when he was seen coming off the tunnel before the final whistle in last weekend’s game against Brentford at the City Stadium.
But Cooper said this was a stomach bug that he was walking around in the dressing room – he himself became a victim.
The Forest head coach says Santos, like the other new additions to the Forest squad, is getting used to life in a new environment and will get his chance when he is ready.
With fellow midfielders Danilo, Nicolas Dominguez and Ryan Yates all carrying injuries, that opportunity could come later this week, when Forest head to Crystal Palace on Saturday.
“He was good. He’s a really good young player. I had a good chat with Chelsea (about him) this week. “I didn’t realize there were some things written about him,” Cooper said.
“There are a lot of new players here and we are trying to do our best in every game to get the results we want and we are trying to keep the balance by integrating all the players at the right time. That’s a real process.
“With young players, sometimes it can take longer than others to settle in. I’m not saying it’s not, it’s situational in some games at the moment.
Cooper had in mind to use Santos from the bench against Brentford, but plans changed after Moussa Nyhat was ruled out and Dunn said he was struggling to play with 10 men.
“Brentford could be a very good game to come off the bench,” Cooper said. But we were down to 10 men and he (Santos) was not feeling well in the side. That happened to him, because he was definitely in our mindset for a change. He didn’t do that because of the emotion and the red card – so it was a bit of bad luck as well.
But we are very happy to work with him and see him in training. We will continue with this process.