Claudio Yacob looks finished at Nottingham Forest as he eyes Racing return

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Claudio Yacob has not made a Championship appearance for Nottingham Forest since Sabri Lamouchi replaced Martin O’Neill at the City Ground.

Claudio Yacob was probably the Nottingham Forest player most thrilled to see Martin O’Neill handed his P45 at the end of last season.

After all, the experienced Argentine never got a look in once O’Neill replaced Aitor Karanka midway through the 2018/19 campaign, starting just one game under the former Republic of Ireland boss and spending much of the spring stuck on the bench.

So when O’Neill was forced out and Sabri Lamouchi arrived as his replacement a mere 20 minutes later, Yacob would have been praying for a clean slate.

But while Joe Worrall has been handed a fresh start by Lamouchi, establishing himself as the first-choice centre-back since returning from a loan spell at Rangers, Yacob has gone backwards, from benchwarmer to forgotten man.

The former West Brom snapper is a Forest player in name only, having failed to make a single matchday squad in the first three months of the current campaign. With Ben Watson rolling back the years in central midfield and Samba Sow, Alfa Semedo, John Bostock and Tiago Silva all highly rated by Lamouchi, Yacob is further down the pecking order than ever before.

It’s telling that the 32-year-old wasn’t even given a chance even when Sow and Semedo were out of action over the last few weeks.

Speaking to TYC Sports recently, Yacob admitted that he would ‘love’ to make an emotional return to Racing Club, having risen through the ranks at the Argentine giants before his 2012 move to West Brom.

“I would like to be able to return to Racing,” he said. “I would love that challenge.”

Should Racing express an interest in making Yacob’s dream come true, it seems unlikely that Nottingham Forest would stand in his way.

Gboly Ariyibi, Daryl Murphy, El Arabi Hillel Soudani, Karim Ansarifard and Adlene Guedioura were all pushed out the door over the summer while Alexander Milosevic bid farewell suddenly on Monday. Don’t be surprised if Yacob is the next to go.