Mick McCarthy today revealed he has a left back surprise up his sleeve - as George Elokobi travelled to London for further assessment on his knee injury.

George is heading to London with physio Steve Kemp to meet the surgeon who is going to operate on his knee and repair the extensive damage to his ligaments.

As yet there is no timescale on how long George will be sidelined for but as Mick pointed out: "It's going to be months rather than weeks."

"We're only really guessing at this stage but we know it's going to be quite a while," said Mick.

"He's going with Kempy now to have it looked at again and possibly have the operation.

"It will be investigated and the issue is going to be whether they can repair all the ligaments at once.

"It might be they have to repair the medial and lateral at first and then the anterior afterwards but that's just talking in layman's terms.

"But again, that's just guessing and until the surgeon who's going to do the operation has another look we won't know any more.

"It is months rather than weeks."

Having lost both George and Jody Craddock, Mick is hopeful Wolves will be able to strengthen before the closure of the transfer window on Monday night.

"I'm hopeful we'll get something done but if not we can utilise the loan market," he added.

In terms of tomorrow's game with Nottingham Forest Mick has admitted he has something in mind to cover the left back slot different to what was used in Tuesday's Carling Cup tie at Rotherham.

"I've got a secret weapon up my sleeve but obviously I'm not going to tell everyone what it is," he added.

"There'll be someone playing at left back I'll tell you that much."

* Tomorrow's game is all ticket for Nottingham Forest fans but Wolves fans can pay on the day in certain areas. Click here for details.