Hull City boss Steve Bruce is gutted over the loss to an Achilles injury for Sone Aluko.
Bruce admits there may be an underlying weakness and could hardly hide his disappointment at the development.
"We've had some bad news; it's been confirmed that Sone has torn his Achilles and that's put a dampener on everything for us," he said.
"It's tragically hard luck. He broke down in the warm-up last week and it's just been confirmed he's got a tear which will keep him out until at least February.
"We await the specialists who are looking at the best way forward for him.
"He's had a few problems on it before but we thought we were over the situation. To damage yourself in a warm-up is quite ridiculous - it's sod's law, it's a warm-up he's done dozens of times - but there must have been a weakness there.
"It's been a little bit of an ongoing issue with Sone so whether it's all related we're not quite sure. We have to be patient now and hope we can see him in February."
