Ipswich Town fans may be shocked to hear Omari Hutchinson news at Nottingham Forest | OneFootball

Hutchinson recently made his well-documented move to the City Ground as Forest prepare for Europe

Omari Hutchinson was one of two big departures from Ipswich Town this summer, with the winger making a swift return to the Premier League following his move to Nottingham Forest.

It was a transfer saga which dragged on for long periods of the summer window, with the England Under-21 international the subject of interest from many sides in the top-flight, eventually moving to the City Ground for a reported £37.5m fee - by far and away the most expensive outgoing of all-time at Portman Road, eclipsing Liam Delap's prior exit to Chelsea for £30m.

Hutchinson's top-flight potential had been spoken about at length during an initially impressive breakthrough season with the Suffolk club during the 2023/24 season, where he played an integral part in Kieran McKenna's side achieving back-to-back promotions from League One to the top flight.

Despite not being as effective during a frustrating and solitary season back among English football's elite for Town, the 21-year-old has suffered an early setback just weeks after returning to the top-flight as Forest prepare for their first European campaign in 29 years.

Omari Hutchinson omitted from Nottingham Forest's UEFA Europa League squad - developments may shock Ipswich Town

Hutchinson has already made two substitute appearances in the Premier League for Forest following his high-profile summer transfer, coming off the bench for his debut in a 1-1 away draw to Crystal Palace before making his home bow in a disappointing 3-0 defeat to West Ham United at the City Ground on Sunday.

Prior to the defeat against The Hammers, those of a Forest persuasion learned their opponents, fixture dates and kick-off times ahead of the upcoming UEFA Europa League 'League Phase' after controversially taking the place of FA Cup winners, Crystal Palace, who were demoted to the UEFA Conference League.

Prior to the first of those - a trip to last season's Conference League runners-up, Real Betis - Forest submitted their 25-man squad to UEFA for the 'League Phase', in which there are regulations involving 'locally-trained players', who have either come through the club's academy or at another side within the English game. Only four of those can qualify as 'association-trained', which is the category Hutchinson falls under after progressing through the ranks at Arsenal before re-signing for Chelsea.

As such, it had initially been reported by the Daily Mail's Midlands correspondent, Tom Collomosse, that Hutchinson was likely to be left out of the final squad for the eight 'League Phase' encounters, with his omission subsequently confirmed via the club's official squad announcement on Wednesday evening.

Forest do have an array of dynamic attackers among their ranks, with fellow summer recruit Dan Ndoye, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Jota Silva and Deadline Day incoming, Dilane Bakwa all options for Nuno alongside England international, Morgan Gibbs-White.

Of course, due to the regulations which the club have to comply with, some, unfortunately, have to miss out on European football. Despite being denied the opportunity to prove his worth on the continental stage, Hutchinson will no doubt be fuelled with motivation to prove a point to Nuno.

Those at Portman Road have their own aims to worry about this season after starting the Championship season slowly, although the aforementioned developments will no doubt cause a mixed reaction.

Given the way in which he departed the club after previously scoring 14 goals and posting eight assists in 82 games, which included a request to miss last month's EFL Cup defeat to Bromley, some supporters have already clocked onto the news, with one fan quoting Collomosse's initial update with a well-known video of Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards in hysterics.

Of course, not all of an Ipswich persuasion may share this view, but they will more than likely be surprised regardless of their views on Hutchinson at this moment in time.