Nottingham Forest sprang a surprise with their starting line-up against Arsenal with this season’s top scorer Chris Wood included among the substitutes.
The experienced striker has been in red hot goalscoring form this season and has already found the back of the net on 14 occasions for club and country this term.
Wood did feature twice for New Zealand in their World Cup qualifiers against Samoa and Vanuatu over the international break and with the amount of travel involved it was deemed the 32-year-old should start on the bench.
Reacting to Nuno’s shock Wood decision, former Forest star Brian Laws said: ‘Players have been called up internationally, and of course when they travel all over the world jetlag will be very much in the forefront of the manager’s mind.
‘Particularly for Wood who has been everywhere and anywhere. It’s just ridiculous.
‘Anybody will understand when you’re on a plane for so long, jetlag will come in and catches you when you least expect it.
‘Your bodyclock is all over the place and sometimes you can be ustable on your feet. I’ve been through that process myself and it can take you a couple of days to get back into the time zone and it’s important the player’s wellfare is looked after.
‘I know we want the player on the pitch and the player wants to start the game but as a manager you have to take care of your players and I think he’s done that.’
There was no place at all, meanwhile, for Morgan Gibbs-White, who has not recovered from injury.
‘He’s not in the right moment,’ confirmed Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo.
‘We’ve been taking care of him since the knock in the Chelsea game, he has been trying hard, but he’s not in the position to do it today.’