Rangers defender Andy Webster is facing a second operation on the knee he injured in January, Gers manager Walter Smith has confirmed.
The Scotland international suffered the injury in his first training session following his loan move from Wigan.
The 25-year-old recovered and made a scoring debut in the 4-0 win over Gretna on September 1, but an ankle injury saw him sidelined again.
However, the knee injury is still causing concern and he may have to go back under the knife.
Smith said: "There is a little bit of cartilage causing him a problem and he may need to go back in and get it tidied up. It's the knee he had the operation on in January. He had done the rehab, then damaged his ankle ligaments, was out for six weeks, now he has come back and is getting this pain again. He has not had the best of luck because, although it's a straightforward tidy up, you are looking at another four or five weeks before he is back again."
Meanwhile, fellow defender Stevie Smith is also facing the prospect of more surgery following two operations on the pelvic injury that has kept the 22-year-old out of action since December.
The Rangers manager said: "Stevie's still having a problem. He has been at a specialist in Germany and we are waiting on the results. It might be he will need another operation on his hernia because it has been causing him a bit of bother. The frustrating thing is he has done all his rehab fine. It's just in games when he kicks a ball that he is getting a problem."
19 October 2007
Celtic midfielder Scott Brown will not be risked against Rangers tomorrow if there is any chance he could worsen his tweaked hamstring.
The Scotland international, who has impressed since joining from Hibernian for £4.4million in the summer, sustained the injury while on international duty for Scotland against Ukraine on Saturday.
Boss Gordon Strachan has denied Celtic have an injury crisis ahead of the crucial clash at Ibrox - but did admit there are a few players who are struggling. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Paul Hartley and Mark Wilson will all miss the match, while Gary Caldwell still needs to prove his fitness if he is to provide cover at right-back.
Strachan said: "Crisis is too big a word but we definitely have problems. Jim O'Brien eventually played at the back against Gretna in our last league match and he was right-back number six, I think. Jan and Paul can't do any training and Scott hasn't been able to work with us since he came back from the Scotland squad after the win over Ukraine. We'll look at Gary later to see if he has any chance of playing against Rangers but Scott won't be risked if there's any chance we could hamper him for even longer."
O'Brien, who has yet to start a first-team game for Celtic, has already declared his candidacy for the right-back slot - even though he prefers playing further up the park. However, Caldwell is likely to get the nod if he recovers from a knee problem - and then keep the position for next week's trip to Benfica.
Unsurprisingly given the injury situation, Strachan has questioned the logic of playing the game at 12.30pm on a Saturday when the national team has played just days before.
01 October 2007
Gretna manager Davie Irons bemoaned his side's dreadful start at Aberdeen as the Black and Whites slumped to their sixth defeat in eight matches so far this season.
Irons' side were two goals behind after only 18 minutes at Pittodrie and, despite an improved showing after the interval, were unable to get back into the match.
Irons said: "We can't keep giving teams a two-goal start as there's then no way back. To be fair I thought Aberdeen did really well during the opening 20 minutes, but the disappointing thing was that we didn't get to grips with the game or compete well enough during that period. We didn't earn the right to take anything out of this game based on our first-half performance."
