St Mirren midfielder Jordan Kirkpatrick could miss the first three months of the season after Alan Stubbs revealed he had damaged knee ligaments.
Kirkpatrick, 26, suffered the injury early in the second half of Friday night's Betfred Cup clash with Kilmarnock.
The former Hamilton and Dumbarton player is back in Paisley after spending the second half of last term on loan at Alloa.
But he has now suffered a fresh setback in his bid to force his way into Stubbs' line-up.
"It's not such good news with Jordan," admitted new Saints manager Stubbs. "Unfortunately he's got a medial ligament injury which could potentially keep him out for something in the region of eight to 12 weeks.
"He doesn't need an operation which is a little crumb of comfort.
"But he is obviously going to miss a number of weeks which is a real blow."
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