Nottingham Forest midfielder Jonathan Greening is delaying ankle surgery until the end of the season.
Forest midfielder needs to go under knife at end of season
Nottingham Forest midfielder Jonathan Greening is delaying ankle surgery until the end of the season.
Greening has been playing through the pain barrier for several weeks, struggling to play consecutive matches for Steve Cotterill's side.
The 33-year-old requires an operation but will postpone the procedure to help the club battle against relegation from the Championship.
Greening made his first start since January in last weekend's draw with Barnsley, but did not feature in the midweek loss to fellow strugglers Doncaster.
"Jonathan is going to have to have an operation at the end of the season," Forest boss Cotterill told the club's
official website.
Not ideal
"We can't play him back-to-back; it's not ideal. His problem is probably a little bit worse than what we actually thought.
"But he's quite a brave boy and a good lad, and he's going to stay around for as and when we need him."
Forest currently have the worst home record in the Championship, and Cotterill admits that his young squad are feeling the strain.
"We have a lot of players here who have not played under this pressure (at the City Ground) very often," said Cotterill.
"Before we had experienced players like Paul McKenna who can hold a team together. He keeps teams moving.
"You can sometimes sacrifice things a little bit by having somebody in your side who is perhaps not as athletic, but who can pass the ball and retain possession for you.
"I brought players in who I hoped were going to do that and, to be fair, they have. But if players are injured, you can't use them."
