Nottingham Forest finished ninth in the Championship table, eight points outside the play-off places and manager Martin O'Neill will be looking to considerably strengthen his squad in the summer and build a team that can challenge for promotion next season.

O'Neill faces plenty of important decisions over the squad he inherited from Aitor Karanka in January and must decide which players to keep at the club and who he should sell.

One of those players is defender Michael Hefele, who endured a frustrating campaign for the Reds last term and missed the entire second half of the season through injury.

Hefele joined Forest from Huddersfield Town last summer on a three-year deal, but O'Neill must now decide whether he deserves a chance to prove himself at the club next season.

Here, we take a look at some of his stats from last season, to decide whether Forest should keep or sell the player...

Hefele made 15 appearances for Nottingham Forest in the Championship last season, but is yet to feature since O'Neill took charge of the club due an Achilles injury.

The defender averaged 3.6 clearances per game and won an average of 1.9 aerial duels per match. He also made an average of one interception per game.

Hefele averaged 3.1 long balls per game and averaged 39.3 passes per match, with a pass success rate of 78.3%.

His stats suggest that he could still be an important player for Forest, but it could be difficult for him to force his way into O'Neill's plans ahead of the likes of Joe Worrall and Alexander Milosevic.

Should O'Neill decided to sell the defender, his stats suggest that he could still be an important player for most teams in the Championship, just as he was for Huddersfield in the 2016-17 season.