Luckless Bristol Rovers defender Josh Grant faces a prolonged spell on the sidelines with knee surgery potentially required. The 23-year-old met with a specialist on Thursday to discuss his options after a frustrating series of niggles.
The former Chelsea prospect was thought to be closing in on a return for the Gas, but his manager Joey Barton has revealed Grant has suffered another setback and he is facing an operation. Grant has been limited to just one appearance this season, a 10-minute appearance from the bench against Oxford United in August.
Barton has repeatedly highlighted Grant's importance to Rovers at different points over the past two seasons, raving about his versatility and a football IQ that he believes will make him a good coach one day. However, injuries have held him back at Rovers and the manager believes the situation "must be soul-destroying" for a player who cannot catch a break.
"I think Josh is going to require an operation," Barton said. "He’s had a further setback and he hasn’t even made it to us. He’s still got a bit of an issue and it’s been scanned and he might need a bit of surgery in the knee.
"It must be incredibly frustrating for Josh. When you’re a good player as he is, it must be soul-destroying to keep having niggle after niggle. We’ve just got to help him through that, support him and hopefully he will turn a corner someday.
"He’s seeing the surgeon today in London, I think. After he has a discussion with him, we’ll probably know a bit more about the timeframe."
Grant joined Rovers in 2020 and played 32 times in his first league campaign with the club as the Gas were relegated to League Two, but amid the woes of that season Barton identified him as a player he could build with. His best moments in a Rovers shirt followed, excelling as a left wing-back in 2021/22 and scoring three goals in 22 appearances before his momentum was robbed by a knee injury in February.
He was able to return before the end of the season, playing in five of the final six games as the Gas clinched promotion back to League One, but he has suffered familiar fortune since. Should the specialists advise him to have surgery, Barton hopes it finally gets to the bottom of Grant's injury woes.
Barton said: "Josh is out of contract in the summer and you forget he is 23, he’s still young, and we hope this is the thing, the operation that sorts everything out for him and away he goes, but we’re in the lap of the gods on that and the surgeons and physios will deal with that and take it from there.
"We’re desperate to get him in our team because he’s such a good player and I can’t imagine the level of frustration and disappointment there must be for him because he’s had a lot of setbacks in my short time here and I think he’s had a lot over the course of his career."
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