Morgan Gibbs-White was not included in Nottingham Forest's squad for their pre-season draw at Chesterfield but his attempted transfer to Tottenham Hotspur was not the reason.
The 25-year-old England international had been on the verge of a move to Spurs with the north London side having triggered the £60million release clause in his contract at Forest. However, that has been delayed by the Midlands side considering legal action against what they believe is an illegal approach from the north London club along with the potential revealing of a confidential release clause.
Tottenham still hope to push through with the deal for Gibbs-White and the current feeling around the transfer is that Forest may only succeed in delaying the move rather than preventing it. Having already sold Anthony Elanga to Newcastle for £52million, Nuno Espirito Santo's side were not planning on losing the England midfielder as well this summer.
Forest returned to pre-season action on Saturday with a 0-0 draw at Chesterfield and some people took more from Gibbs-White's absence than was actually the case. The former Wolves man would not have been involved in the match against the League Two side regardless of the current situation with Spurs because he is part of a group of players who had been on international duty last month that are not due to return to Forest until later next week.
Whether he would have been involved anyway is another thing but Gibbs-White came off the bench for England late in the 1-0 World Cup qualifying win away against Andorra last month and then got more than half an hour off the bench in the 3-1 friendly defeat to Senegal at The City Ground.
All eyes now are on what happens with any potential complaint to the Premier League from Forest as Spurs look to sign the midfielder and get him involved in Thomas Frank's own pre-season work. Both the Dane and Tottenham have long wanted the England man, with Frank believing he is the perfect fit for system with his creativity and high energy performances.