Birmingham City left-back David Murphy has been ruled out of action for around six weeks.
Murphy has been suffering from a swollen knee recently and the Championship club are unwilling to rush his comeback, as the 29-year-old only returned from 10 months on the sidelines in September.
"He has had an injection and it's basically starting him up again, putting him through the process and seeing how his knee reacts to the different type of stresses at various stages," manager Lee Clark told the Birmingham Mail.
"Certainly he will not be available until Christmas or thereafter. We're looking around about six weeks, if everything goes to plan. That's without any setbacks. So that's what we are considering there."
Murphy has made 106 league appearances for Birmingham since moving to St Andrew's from Hibernian in January 2008.
