Norwich City boss Bryan Gunn says striker Carl Cort may well miss the remainder of the season as a result of his operation today. Cort, 31, is with a specialist in London today having a bursa - a painful injury to a fat pad on the foot - removed, and will probably miss the remainder of the Championship campaign.

Norwich City boss Bryan Gunn says striker Carl Cort may well miss the remainder of the season as a result of his operation today.

Cort, 31, is with a specialist in London today having a bursa - a painful injury to a fat pad on the foot - removed.

Gunn told the club's official website that Cort will probably miss the remainder of the Championship campaign and praised the striker's courage and commitment to the Canary cause since he joined in December.

He commented: "It looks likely now that we won't have him for the remaining games, with an operation and then the recovery period after that. His commitment and his bravery we've got to commend, because he put his body on the line for the club and the more characters we have like that in the squad the better.

"Obviously we're disappointed that we've lost Carl now though we're not sure yet of the exact length of time that will involve. But it needed repairing, which was identified and Carl very bravely played on for three or four games with pain-killers and injections.

"We came to a crossroads where we needed to make a decision for his own well-being and hopefully now for Carl the operation will be a success and it will give him the opportunity to regain his fitness as soon as possible."

Gunn said with the arrival of Alan Lee he was confident Norwich have the firepower to compensate for Cort's likely absence: "One of the reasons for bringing Alan Lee in was knowing Carl's situation. Alan is a big, powerful striker and with the other strikers we've got at the club - David Mooney, Alan Gow, Cody McDonald, Jamie Cureton - we feel we've got a good mix, a good blend which will see us through to the end of the season."

Meanwhile focussing on the other end of the pitch and assistant manager Ian Butterworth spoke to the Evening News yesterday about the club's recent improved defensive record, which has seen just three goals conceded in five league matches.

Gunn agreed this had been an encouraging area of improvement, commenting: "I think it was important that we focussed a lot of the work around the defence and certainly since Ian's come to the club he's taken the defenders and goalkeepers away and worked with that section of the team - and we're reaping the benefit from that.

"Defenders love to defend and goalkeepers love to have clean sheets but it has been a team effort. I suppose the performance that typified that was QPR away where everybody, numbers one to 11, were defending all over the pitch.

"Certainly as a unit defensively we've looked very strong over recent weeks and hopefully with six games to go that will continue to be beneficial to us."

Fired-up by a good return of 10 points from a possible 15, some observers have suggested the international break has come at a bad time for the Canaries as they look to continue their Championship survival charge.

But Gunn said: "It's a break that was always in the diary and though we've managed to get good momentum during recent weeks it does give us a chance to work on any bumps and knocks and regain some freshness in any tired legs."