“Out of theatre and surgery was successful” Lewis Grabban tweets following ankle surgery

Neil is optimistic Grabban will be back before the end of the season after confirming the 12-goal striker is poised to undergo an exploratory operation on Thursday after his surprise omission from the squad for the Latics' defeat.

'It is a big blow to us because he has been a major part for us in the past six matches,' said Neil.

'We don't think he'll be missing for the rest of the season, we just have to see the extent of the damage with the operation and then we can take it from there. To be honest, we don't know if it is ligament damage.

'It is more a clear-up type of thing that he has to go and get looked at and then we'll know more once it is done.

'He was okay after the Ipswich game and then he came in the following morning and he was really struggling and couldn't walk on it.

'It was really swollen and the next day it was even worse. So the specialist has said it needs to be operated on.'

Grabban's injury absence capped a miserable night against Malky Mackay's battlers.

'We are so disappointed,' said Neil.

'We have spoken about guarding against complacency, about keeping the intensity up and the things that need to be right for every game.

'Ultimately it is down to the individual and we didn't perform to anywhere near our maximum. We were nowhere near it.

'We threw in Gary (Hooper) and Cameron (Jerome) and it is always difficult as a front player when the team doesn't play well but you have to look at yourself as an individual and carry that load and I don't think we had enough who did that all the way through the team.

'We didn't have nearly anywhere near enough.

'The players gave it their best shot in the second half but you need six or seven at least playing well and for us tonight we didn't have many playing well at all.'