91Èȱ¬

Nottingham Forest striker Britt Assombalonga has been ruled out for 12 months after undergoing knee surgery.

The 22-year-old suffered the injury while shooting during Wednesday's 3-0 Championship win over Wigan Athletic, in which he scored the opener.

Assombalonga joined Forest from Peterborough for £5.5m last summer and is the top scorer with 15 goals.

He said on "Thanks for all the messages. Just want to say surgery was successful. Onwards and upwards."

It leaves Forest with only three first-team strikers in Matty Fryatt, Dexter Blackstock and Lars Veldwijk, who has yet to start a league game.

The club also remain under a transfer embargo for breaching Financial Fair Play rules.

A full embargo was lifted on Monday after Forest paid the latest instalment owed to Posh for Assombalonga, but they will still be bound by certain criteria if boss Dougie Freedman wants to sign a replacement.

Freedman, who has won both of his games in charge since succeeding Stuart Pearce, told 91Èȱ¬ Radio Nottingham: "It's part of the game, but part of the game I don't like.

"It's very disappointing. We have to make sure we are very supportive of him.

"He is a huge player for us - a goalscorer and I felt I could have tided up his game a bit too."

Wednesday's win over the Latics lifted Forest up to 10th in the Championship, 12 points off the play-off places and 10 above the relegation zone.