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The Brazilian youngster moved to the City Ground expecting regular, first-team football but he has only made one single substitute appearance in the Premier League.
Forest made late swoops for Ibrahima Sangare and Nicolas Dominguez after signing Santos, both of whom usurped him in the midfield pecking order.
Chelsea were already concerned by Santos’ lack of game time, but have now decided to act after he was left out of the matchday squad entirely for Forest’s last two games against West Ham and Brighton.
According to The Athletic, Chelsea will make use of a break clause inserted into his loan move, with the 19-year-old set to return to Stamford Bridge as soon as the January window opens.
Forest are happy for Santos to return to his parent club given how little he is being used, particularly as they are incurring a financial penalty every time he does not play.
Chelsea are already giving thought over what to do with Santos in the second half of the season and face something of a dilemma.
The west London club already have seven international loans – the maximum allowed by UEFA rules – and would need to cancel one in order to find a new, European club for Santos.
It is difficult to see who they would recall, however, with Gabriel Slonina at Eupen, David Fofana getting regular games at Union Berlin, Angelo Gabriel at Strasbourg, Diego Moreira at Lyon, Hakim Ziyech at Galatasaray, Kepa Arrizabalaga at Real Madrid and Romelu Lukaku at Lyon.
Strasbourg, who are owned by the same group as Chelsea, would be interested in taking Santos on loan.
It is possible that Santos could go to a domestic club though his struggles to make an impact at Forest suggest Chelsea may need to look at a Championship club as a destination.
It presents Chelsea with a conundrum and the Brazilian could yet stay at Cobham for the remainder of the season, having impressed Mauricio Pochettino in pre-season and earned a spot on the bench for their opening Premier League match.
Speaking at the start of last month about Santos’ lack of game time, Forest boss Steve Cooper said: ‘He’s been good. He’s obviously a really good young player. I had a really good chat with Chelsea [about him] this week. I didn’t realise some stuff had been written about him.
‘There’s a lot of new players here and we’re really trying to get the balance right in integrating all the players at the right time, while trying to perform as best we can in every single game to get the results we want. That’s a real process.
‘With young players, sometimes it can take longer than others to settle in. I’m not saying he’s not, it’s just circumstantial at the moment in some of the games.’
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