Nottingham Forest are busy being put through their paces in blistering heat over in Spain and Andy Reid appears pleased with the work Joe Worrall is doing. The Reds face Valencia tonight as they look to step up their pre-season performance levels.
Worrall has been with Forest his entire career. He came through the academy ranks on Trentside and after loan spells with Dagenham and Rangers, he’s now the club’s captain.
The 26-year-old defender had a pretty inconsistent maiden campaign in the Premier League. For the final seven weeks of the season, he was fantastic but more often than not he actually found himself dropped to the bench by Steve Cooper.
Worrall might feel as though he’s maybe still got a bit of something to prove. Some fans remain on the fence over whether or not he can cut it in the Premier League and the player will be keen to put their mind at rest.
Reid is still part of the backroom setup at Forest. He was putting the players through their paces on one drill in particular. It was a two-a-side drill on a very small pitch with the players pitting their wits against each other.
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Worrall was paired with Orel Mangala and they both worked tirelessly. In the fourth minute of the video posted on the Forest YouTube channel, Worrall is seen scoring and then roaring back to win a tackle and get his pairing on the charge once again.
Reid shouts some praise towards Worrall and clearly the coach will have welcomed his efforts. The centre-back will be hoping he can earn himself a regular spot in Cooper’s team with some strong performance in pre-season.
Reid pleased with Forest star Worrall in Spain
Whilst rain batters Britain, the rest of Europe are basking in temperatures close to 40 degrees. That’s all good and well until you’re trying to do two training sessions a day, much like Forest at the moment.
Worrall looked unfazed by the heat though. There were a lot of strong showing on the training video but the Forest captain looked in particularly good nick.
The academy graduate will be desperate to impress his manager. He knows that Felipe and Moussa Niakhate are pretty much nailed on to play, with Worrall vying for that third place.
Given his efforts in training, the Forest man might just show that he’s capable of scaling dizzier heights in the Premier League this season.