Dundee United’s Mihael Kovacevic is to undergo further knee surgery at the end of the month.
The Swiss U21 international had an exploratory/tidy-up operation last week after injuring himself while training over the summer.
He’ll now return to Switzerland for a fortnight’s break before undergoing cruciate ligament reconstruction.
Prior to Kovacevic being injured United had been talking to him about a new contract.
Those discussions have now been put on hold.
But the player — whose existing deal expires in January — has been told the Tangerines will continue to support his recovery and return to the subject of a new contract once he is fit again.
“Mihael gets another operation in a few weeks, and it will be around Christmas time before he’s back,” said manager Peter Houston.
“He’s out of contract in January, but I’ve told him we’ll look after him.
“If he’s still injured when his contract expires we’ll take care of him — just like we’ve done with every other player.
“You don’t hand out long-term contracts to players who are currently injured, but as soon as he’s fit again we’ll sit down with him.
“He’s done brilliantly for us. He’s a young man and there is plenty of improvement left in him once he gets over this setback.”
Meanwhile, David Goodwillie is the latest first-team man to be ruled out of Saturday’s Oban tournament.
He pulled out of training on Wednesday suffering from a slight double groin problem.
“Goodie has a couple of sore areas, so I’m going to leave him out of the weekend,” confirmed Houston.
Goodwillie joins Paul Dixon, Craig Conway, Darren Dods and Danny Swanson in missing the trip, although all five are expected to be on the plane to Austria next week.
There’s a familiar face training with United this week, as former Tangerines full-back Stuart Duff is working on his fitness at St Andrews while looking for a new club after being released by Aberdeen.