Scotland full-back Nathan Patterson looks set for another spell on the sidelines after picking up a knee injury.
Patterson was forced off just after the hour mark in Everton’s 4-1 defeat to Brighton on Tuesday.
Embattled Toffees manager Frank Lampard admitted that the early indications are that he has damaged medial ligaments.
The 21-year-old will undergo scans to discover the extent of the problem but Lampard fears the former Rangers defender could be absent for ‘weeks’.
Lampard said: “It's a knee injury and it could be weeks. Medial ligaments.
“We'll have to get it scanned but it looks like a medial (issue), which is not ideal."
Scotland manager Steve Clarke will also be hoping for positive news over Patterson ahead of the start of UEFA 2024 qualifying in March against Cyprus and Spain.
Patterson has been hampered by injury since moving to Goodison Park from Rangers a year ago.
The wing-back underwent ankle surgery at the end of last season before sustaining another ankle injury on Scotland duty in last September’s UEFA Nations League win over Ukraine.
That set-back that kept Patterson sidelined for five weeks.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here