The really upsetting thing for everybody at Nottingham Forest is that, as their friend and club mate Taiwo Awoniyi lies stricken in hospital, they know that none of this needed to have happened at all.
Had an assistant referee put her flag up as a clearly offside Anthony Elanga ran on to a through ball late in Forest’s 2-2 draw against Leicester on Sunday, there would have been no cross to the far post.
There would have been no collision between Awoniyi and the frame of the goal.
It’s a relatively new rule – the one that tells assistants like Sian Massey-Ellis to wait until the passage of play is over before signalling - but it’s long since felt like an accident waiting to happen.