Sunderland will be without the services of Dan Ballard for a period of time after the defender suffered a hamstring injury on international duty for Northern Ireland.
The 27-year-old centre-back sustained the injury in the closing stages of his country's 1-0 win over Georgia on Friday night.
He subsequenly left the stadium on crutches and he has now been ruled out of all three of Northern Ireland's remaining fixtures during the current international period.
Ballard has returned to Sunderland for further treatment and the club's medical team will be hoping to help him back to full fitness sooner rather than later.
We've taken a look at the earliest possible date that Ballard could return to first-team action for Sunderland.
When is Dan Ballard expected to return from injury?
Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill said after the Georgia victory that he was hopeful that Ballard would be available for his country in November.
A return for the November internationals is seemingly the best case scenario, with Football Insider reporting that the injury could be worse than initially feared.
A timeframe of months rather than weeks has been reported and that would rule Ballard out until the new year, but the club will be doing their damnest to avoid that outcome.
Any return before the next international break looks unlikely, with Northern Ireland's home game against Ukraine on November 14th a potential target if an upcoming scan turns out to be positive.
That scenario could mean that he is available for Sunderland's trip to Aston Villa in the Premier League on November 21st.
However, the potentially longer timeframe could mean that a January comeback is more likely.
