It hasn’t been the greatest of seasons for Nottingham Forest, the Midlands-based outfit having generally struggled on their return to the English top-flight, and news that one of their new signings has had to return home to Brazil after falling victim to a scam is hardly likely to help their cause.

At present, Forest is in 14th position in the Premier League table, but remains only two points from the drop zone and four points from the bottom of the table.

Things could turn again in an instant and see Forest sailing perilously close to the wind in terms of relegation.

To that end, they need all of their new – and old – signings playing at their best in order for Steve Cooper to approach the end of the 2022/23 campaign with some degree of confidence.

His hopes of keeping his side up won’t be helped by the January signing, Gustavo Scarpa, having to go back to Brazil to try and sort out an issue that’s seen him scammed out of £1m after investing in a crypto company, per Telegraph.

The midfielder has barely had time to showcase what he can do, playing 90 minutes only once in his eight games per WhoScored, and just how much his absence will affect Forest will only be known at season’s end.

It’s yet another blow for Cooper who probably felt that when signing the likes of Jesse Lingard from Man United, Forest would go from strength to strength.

Lingard unfortunately hasn’t impressed this season and Football Insider report that Forest won’t be offering him an extension on his one-year deal signed last summer.

Brazilian footballers fall victim to crypto scam

Three Brazilian footballers, including Nottingham Forest midfielder Gustavo Scarpa, say they have fallen victim to a multi-million-dollar cryptocurrency scam, according to local media reports.

Scarpa, his former teammate Mayke at Sao Paulo club Palmeiras, and Willian Bigode of Rio de Janeiro club Fluminense all claim to have lost huge sums to a crypto firm called Xland, which promised investors returns of up to 5 percent a month on their money, according to the reports.

“I’ve always seen stupid people fall victim to pyramid schemes and scams. Finding myself in a situation like that is horrible,” Scarpa, 29, said in a WhatsApp audio message aired Sunday by Brazil’s biggest broadcaster, TV Globo.

Scarpa, who was named Brazilian league player of the year in 2022, and 30-year-old defender Mayke filed complaints with police in November, shortly after winning the league title with Palmeiras.

Scarpa says he invested 6.3 million reais ($1.2 million) in Xland. Mayke says he invested around 4 million reais ($762,000).

Both say they were persuaded to invest in the company by Willian Bigode, a former Palmeiras teammate.

But Bigode, 36, says he is also a victim.

Brasilia-based Xland denied running a pyramid scheme and said it would pay back its clients.

It said it had suffered huge losses from the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which declared bankruptcy in November.