YANIC Wilschut will have an operation on an ankle injury which is expected to keep him out until April.

The Dutchman, on loan from Norwich City, limped off at half time in the FA Cup victory against Walsall and has now returned to his parent club for treatment.

Wildschut had arguably been Phil Parkinson’s biggest name summer signing – but despite scoring a winner against West Brom on his debut on the opening day of the season, he has struggled for consistency and managed just six starts in all competitions.

Parkinson has not given up hope that Wildschut will be able to feature again for Wanderers before the end of the season but admitted his injury is a setback to the squad.

“It’s obviously a blow to lose Yanic for a long period of time but we are hopeful the operation will be a success and he will return to training sooner rather than later,” he said.

Wanderers had previously played down reports they were ready to cut the winger’s loan short this month, allowing him to move on to Sheffield United. Now they face a challenge to replace him in the remaining two weeks of the transfer window, knowing they must first escape an EFL-imposed registration embargo.

The club will be unable to freely make new signings until they have satisfied the league that they no longer have football creditors.

One of the issues which led to the embargo was a six-figure fee owed to Norwich for the wages of Wildschut and goalkeeper Remi Matthews, who returned to Carrow Road last weekend.

Wanderers remain adamant they can resign Matthews and even Christian Doidge, who played as a substitute in Forest Green’s 0-0 draw against Oldham Athletic at the weekend.