Nottingham Forest are giving their "full support" to midfielder Gustavo Scarpa while he handles off-field matters.
The 29-year-old is said to have lost about £1million from investing in a cryptocurrency venture and, according to ESPN Brazil, has filed a lawsuit in Brazil to try to recover the money. He returned to his homeland this week, with the club's permission, to deal with the situation - and head coach Steve Cooper admits it has affected the Brazilian's availability for the Reds.
The last time Scarpa, who is now back in the UK, got out on the pitch was during the 2-0 defeat at Fulham last month. Against Manchester City and West Ham United, he was an unused substitute, while he was not part of the match squad at all against Everton and Tottenham Hotspur.
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“I can tell you that he has had some personal issues to sort out and we are giving him our support, which has been inclusive of allowing him to travel back (to Brazil)," said Cooper. "But I don’t really think it’s right for me to go into the ins and outs of the situation. I don’t think I’m allowed to either, but I wouldn’t want to anyway because it’s a personal situation.
“First and foremost, that’s where I’m at with it. We’re supporting Gustavo in terms of what he’s going through. Of course it affects football performance and availability, and all that sort of stuff. Those things go hand in hand, of course.
“For us, we just want him to be settled in his mind and sorting out the situation. It’s an unfortunate situation and he’s got our full support with it. Hopefully he can get it sorted out and then he can really focus on his availability for us.”
Asked if it was fair to say Scarpa has not been involved for Forest recently because of the matter, Cooper added: “I think so, yeah.”
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