Nottingham Forest striker Awoniyi opens up on a life overcoming the odds

An away fixture at Arsenal is one of the most difficult challenges in English football but as has become his habit, Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi simply took it in his stride.

Awoniyi is off the mark for the season thanks to his goal as a substitute in the 2-1 defeat at Emirates Stadium last Saturday and though Forest left with nothing, their second-half performance will give them plenty of optimism for Friday's meeting with Sheffield United at the City Ground.

Awoniyi's calmness derives from the obstacles he has overcome to arrive at this point, which means he treats sporting pressure as a privilege. Awoniyi is the first player from Kwara state, in the west of Nigeria, to make it to the Premier League.

He joined Liverpool aged 18 but was not granted a work permit, so he had seven different loan spells in three countries before he signed for Forest last summer, for £17.5million, from Union Berlin.

From the day he started kicking a ball, Awoniyi has fought ferocious odds. 'There is pressure in football but for many African players, growing up is difficult,' he tells Mail Sport. 'In some cases they have seen the other side of life and that helps.

'I've been in a situation as a child where I had to go to bed without food. Where I had to walk an hour just to get to a training ground.

'My dad is a retired officer and his earnings were not enough to cater for the whole family so growing up was really tough. Sometimes you are the one who has to find means for yourself.

'Of course your mum and dad want to do everything they can for you but growing up, you see limits of what they can do. The best you can do is try to help as much as you can.

'This is what really inspired me to be who I am today. It gave me the courage to