Jose Sa insists the Wolves must be “warriors” to survive after it was revealed he played most of the season with a broken wrist.
The goalkeeper was the hero for the hosts on Saturday when he saved a last-minute penalty from Brennan Johnson to secure a 1-0 win.
The win, the first since Bruno Lage was sacked this month, saw the coachless Wolves move out of the bottom three.
A penalty from Ruben Neves gave the team the win and Sa, who broke his right wrist in the second game of the season, believes they have to risk everything to stay in the Premier League.
He said: “After I beat Fulham, we played Tottenham and it was difficult. But that’s our life – we have to be like warriors to help the team.
“Yes, it hurt and yes, I needed painkillers. It still hurts sometimes, but I came out to punch right after the penalty and used my right fist and it was OK.
“It was painful before, but it was an important time for the team and that’s why I made the decision to continue.”
U18 coach Steve Davis remains interim coach after Julen Lopetegui turned down a move to Molineux last week for personal reasons.
Wolves travel to Crystal Palace on Tuesday and Sa said the players are just waiting for news regarding a new manager.
He said: “We have to move on and continue to work with Steve, who is a good manager. And what happens after that, we will see.”
“We’re taking it step by step. We won today and now we have another game on Tuesday.”
“It’s important to get the win that gets us out of the bottom three. But it’s still very early in the league season and we’re all in this together.
“If we win next week, we can soon move up to ninth or tenth place. It’s still very early, we still have a lot of time and we are a good team.”
Forest remain bottom of the table and have not won in their last eight games after Harry Toffolo handled Adama Traoré’s shot in the box, allowing Neves to score the decisive penalty.
Defenceman Steve Cook said: “You don’t have much of a chance as a defender these days.
“When you want to block a ball, it’s natural to stretch out your arms. It’s very hard. I’ve seen a lot of handballs that have been given and not given and I’m not sure anymore what is a penalty and what isn’t.
“Yeah, it just looks tough to me. The legislators want goals and the defenders suffer because of it.”
