Nottingham Forest have suffered a major injury blow with forward Hilal Soudani undergoing knee surgery, according to the Nottingham Post.
The newspaper claims that the timeline for the player’s return is unknown, but that it is expected he will not return before the final few months of the season.
The Algerian missed nine games earlier in the campaign with a knee problem, and he is now set to miss more matches due to the same injury.
He scored twice against Reading and Wigan Athletic earlier this campaign, but has yet to play a full 90 minutes for Aitor Karanka’s side.
OPINION
This is a bitter blow for both the player and the club. Soudani has been incredibly unlucky with injuries already in his short Forest tenure and he now looks set to miss a large portion of the season. The 30-year-old arrived at the City Ground to much fanfare this summer but has been unable to make much of an impact over an extended period of time this campaign. He has done well when he’s featured on the odd occasion this season which suggests that he could do something big for Forest if he can stay fit. His absence, however, will not bee too keenly felt because of the red hot form of frontman Lewis Grabban. The former Norwich City star has been sensational for Forest this term and will likely get better as the season goes on. Although if Grabban’s form were to dip Soudani’s absence would be much more keenly felt than it will be at present.