A joke aimed at former Rangers defender Joe Worrall appears to have shown the early signs of toxicity at Nottingham Forest before manager Steve Cooper was sacked.

The 44-year-old ultimately paid the price for a run of just one win in 13 Premier League games, which has seen Forest plummet to just five points above the drop zone in the Premier League.

Cooper has since been replaced by former Wolves and Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo, and it remains to be seen whether he will be keen for a quickfire return to management himself.

The Athletic produced a deep dive feature into Cooper's sacking today and an excerpt showed that a joke aimed at former Rangers man Joe Worrall by former chairman Nicholas Randall at the start of the season was ultimately a sign of things to come.

The piece read: "This was always going to be a challenging season for Steve Cooper and, even before a ball was kicked in anger, he was beginning to wonder whether everyone at Nottingham Forest understood the importance he placed upon respect and togetherness.

"In June, the club held a pre-season kit launch for fans, sponsors and assorted guests at Nottingham Castle.

"It was a big event for Forest, the first time they had tried anything so ambitious, and Cooper agreed to make an appearance with some first-team players. Danilo, the Brazilian midfielder, made himself available. Taiwo Awoniyi was there and Joe Worrall, the captain, volunteered as a late stand-in after Brennan Johnson had to pull out.

"Nicholas Randall, then the chairman, was also there and gave a speech in which he started by making a reference to what Cooper was wearing. Cooper was able to laugh that off but the manager was furious when Randall used Worrall as the target for a cheap joke.

"Worrall, Randall explained, had spent part of his childhood wanting to be a professional cricketer. The punchline had words to the effect of, “And halfway through last season, we all wished he had been a professional cricketer, too.”

"Worrall, whose form had been patchy, was unimpressed, to say the least. Cooper thought his captain had been publicly humiliated and saw it as a kick in the teeth for himself, the player and all his coaching staff when a huge part of their job involved keeping everyone feeling upbeat and confident.

"Randall’s comments went down so badly that there were people at the club who talked about not wanting him on the same plane as the players for a pre-season fixture against Eintracht Frankfurt. In the end, he was informed there were not enough seats on the flight to Germany."

Worrall spent the 2018/19 season on loan at Rangers from Forest before he returned and ultimately became a regular.

The Englishman has previously discussed how he loved his time in Glasgow, but he admitted that the pressures of playing at Ibrox were huge.