Roy Keane tells Nottingham Forest star to 'toughen up' despite seemingly being PUNCHED by Tottenham's James Maddison

Tottenham Hotspur cruised to a simple 3-1 win over Forest, however, Maddison seemed to be lucky to get away without a red card in the final minutes of the first half. He appeared to punch Yates in the guts as the two jostled inside Spurs' penalty box. However, Manchester United legend Keane believes Yates needs to 'toughen up' and stop going down easy during contact.

Keane, who is now a pundit with Sky Sports, said: "I worked with Yates at Forest, really nice kid, but every week somebody touches him he goes down. He goes down far too easily. For such a decent lad he needs to cut that out of his game."

After the incident, Yates asked referee Simon Hooper to refer with the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) regarding the punch. While VAR did investigate, they did not feel the need to call Hooper to the on-field screen to review the incident as they felt it was clear that there was no malintent in Maddison's action. The disregarding of the incident left Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo furious on the touchline and the Portuguese also ranted during the post-match interview.

Speaking to the media, Santo said [via The Daily Mail]: "Looked like Maddison punched him? It doesn't look like he punched him - he punched him. I saw the image. I was surprised that VAR didn’t tell Simon to review it better because honestly, with all my respect, Maddison loses his composure and it’s a punch in the stomach of Yates.

"It should have been reviewed and [led to] a different decision, not to chat with the players and it looks like nothing happens. We did not see it the same way. We didn’t agree, me and VAR. It’s clear for me, I think it’s a red card. I’m surprised Simon solved it with a nice chat."

The loss left the Tricky Trees in 17th place, level on points with Luton Town towards the bottom of the table. With six matchdays remaining, the battle for safety will likely boil down to Luton and Santo's men. Forest will next be in action when they take on Wolves on Saturday, April 13.