STUART PEARCE is expected to quit as caretaker manager of relegated Nottingham Forest today and by next season his 12-year playing association with the club could also be at an end.

Dave Bassett, who was appointed general manager in March, will become team manager and lead the club's attempt on an immediate return to the Premiership.

Though Pearce is expected to pledge his help as a player, the 35-year-old is likely to move to another club this summer much to the distress of the adoring Forest fans.

But Pearce needs Premiership football in order to stay in England contention and Bassett knows it will be easier to assert himself in the Forest dressing- room without Pearce's influential presence.

The full-back refused to confirm his decision about the manager's job ahead of today's special press conference, but added: "I made my decision some time back and whether Forest stayed up or went down was irrelevant. I think I have made the right decision for me and hopefully for the club."

Various Premiership clubs will be interested in Pearce, though Wimbledon yesterday denied reports linking them with the player.

Meanwhile, Wimbledon manager Joe Kinnear has admitted defeat in his fight to stop the £4.5 million-rated Oyvind Lenhardsen leaving this summer. "He wants to play at a bigger club and we've got to accept that," he said.

Elsewhere, Arsenal's former England midfielder David Platt, 31, has been linked with the managerial vacancy at Stoke and Alan Mullery has left Barnet where he was director of coaching and more recently chief scout.

. Italian star Fabrizio Ravanelli is set to make a dramatic return to action as Middlesbrough fight for Premiership survival. Ravanelli was stretchered off with a suspected torn hamstring against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Monday.

But a hospital scan has revealed the injury was not as serious as expected. Ravanelli, who has scored 31 goals so far this season, will miss the match at Blackburn today but he could be back in action against Leeds at Elland Road on Sunday.

Manager Bryan Robson said: I am relieved a scan showed no tear. Ravanelli wrenched his back somehow and got spasms down his leg. He has a chance of playing out final league game.