Steven Gerrard fears Filip Helander could be out for at least another month after the Rangers defender was hit with a rare foot injury.
The centre-back has not featured since limping off against Celtic in the Betfred Cup final and Gerrard confirmed he will not see action again this year.
He said: “Filip won’t be seen again until after the winter break. It’s a foot issue. I’m not a doctor but I’m told it’s a unique injury.
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“The doctor told me that in his 25-year experience in medicine, he had only seen this issue on a couple of occasions. It’s a difficult one to put an exact date on the time he will be out.
“But he is going to be in a boot for four to six weeks. That’s the starter pack so let’s go from there and see how it progresses.
“I think he’s been in the boot for a couple of weeks now so he will be in a boot until after Christmas and then it will be a case of building the fitness back up and whether there is a reaction from the injury because it’s quite a rare one.”
Gerrard will be without top-scorer Alfredo Morelos after his Fir Park dismissal and the Ibrox boss revealed the striker had made his frustrations clear.
He said: “I think Alfredo has apologised to his team-mates after the Motherwell situation, but that’s not important now.
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“We have to focus on what’s available to us. Alfredo has been different. You can see in his face he’s disappointed not to be available. He’s not a man who hides that disappointment very well.
“You can see even in today’s session that he’s gutted.”
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