Jerome facing race to be fit after operation

Nov 12 2007 By Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

CAMERON Jerome is to have surgery for a hernia tomorrow and faces a race against time to be fit for Blues' next Premier League game.

Jerome has withdrawn from the England Under-21 squad in order to correct a nagging problem.

"I'm going to get my groins done, both sides, and hopefully that will sort it," he revealed. "It's been giving me trouble since pre-season really.

"I've just been getting on with it and maintaining it, having lots of massages and taking anti-inflammatory tablets. It's not gone away so we've got to try and get to the root of it.

"It's international break now so hopefully I'll have a decent chance of being available when we play again."

Blues resume action at home to Portsmouth on November 24.

Jerome said Blues must cut out the mistakes they made in the derby defeat.

"We dug deep and played well in the second-half but we have to learn from these sloppy goals that are costing us. We have got to sort that out and quickly. We don't want that to be an on-going problem."