HIGHBURY hero Brad Friedel could be facing a spell on the sidelines while he undergoes surgery on a long-standing knee problem.

Rovers boss Graeme Souness has revealed the United States international needs an operation to repair a cartilage injury.

But the Ewood chief is hopeful his former Liverpool stopper can play through the pain until there's a suitable break in the fixture list when he will then go under the knife.

"Brad needs to have an operation to fix a knee problem but we are hoping that will be at the end of the season," said Souness.

"But if the problem flares up again then he will have to have surgery which will mean he'll be missing for a few games.

"It was touch and go for him at Arsenal because his cartilage actually popped out in the pre-match warm-up.

"But he wanted to play and I thought he was magnificent for us.

"We've known for a long time just what a good goalkeeper he is and now the rest of the Premiership seem to be waking up to that fact."

Friedel, typically, was modest when asked about his own contribution to Rovers' most impressive victory of the season so far.

"I don't like talking about my own performance too much. Whenever you win a game, it's the whole team that wins it," said Friedel.

"A goalkeeper never, ever wins it on his own and neither does a forward.

"We had two big goal-line scrambles. One where Henning had a big hand in stopping it and I think it was Tiny who had a big hand in stopping the other.

"So I just try and go out and do my job from day-to-day and game to game but all the lads deserve the credit, not just a couple."