West Bromwich Albion loan signing Silvestre Varela is facing groin surgery.
Baggies boss Alan Irvine explained Albion are discussing things with Porto.
"He has got a groin problem which we are assessing at the moment and we are talking to Porto about that as well.
"It's difficult for me to say exactly where he is at this time.
"He is their player, anything involving medical assessment of a player who isn't your player it is common courtesy to talk to the parent club.
"We certainly can't do anything that is too invasive in terms of assessing him without their permission.
"We may be at the stage at the moment where we are not quite sure whether needs a small operation or not.
"We are assessing that, the first step in that process is to see how they feel about it and also to get background information from them about the particular problem.
"This isn't a new problem, it is something he had before and something he was managing when he was at Porto.
"The medical teams are talking and we will find the outcome of those conversations.
"I suppose there is an outside chance [of returning to Portugal] but he is likely to stay here for us to do the work here."
