Scotland forward Shaun Maloney will miss the Dark Blues’ friendly internationals with the United States and Norway next month after he was ruled out for at least three months through injury.
The Wigan playmaker requires a hip operation but Latics boss Owen Coyle has warned the injury may be so bad that the former Celtic man does not return until April at the earliest.
Maloney scored a spectacular free-kick winner in Scotland’s 2-1 World Cup qualifying win over Macedonia but picked up a back injury in the same game.
That knock has kept him out of action since including last week’s 2-0 triumph for Gordon Strachan’s side over Croatia and Coyle explained the back injury stems from a long-standing hip complaint which now requires surgery.
The Wigan boss said: “Shaun will be going in for a hip operation. He had it when we came into the club over the summer, an existing hip injury.
“To be fair to Shaun he tried to play through that, which we thought might be manageable for the season.
“But then when he was away with Scotland, he picked up a back injury that had actually led from the existing hip injury.”
However, Coyle was unable to put a definite date on his comeback.
“If I knew it was going to be three, four or five months then I could tell you,” he said.
“We won’t know that until the surgeon opens him up and sees the extent of the damage. I think it’s certainly fair to say it will be a minimum of three months.”