Borussia Dortmund's Armenia midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been ruled out for six weeks with an injury picked up during Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Hertha Berlin.
Mkhitaryan limped off the Olympiastadion pitch with the sides tied at 0-0 on Saturday, before his replacement Jakub Błaszczykowski gave away possession in the lead-up to Julian Schieber's winning goal. Mkhitaryan had initially impressed in midfield, but was unable to prevent Die Schwarzgelben slipping to their ninth league defeat of the season, a result which sees them move down to 16th place in the table.
And things went from bad to worse for Jürgen Klopp when he was given the news that he will be without the 25-year-old until the end of January. A club statement revealed a slight tear in the playmaker's hamstring, an injury which generally carries a recovery period of around six weeks.
"He felt a tweak, which isn't good ahead of an Englische Woche," revealed Klopp after the game. The phrase refers to an 'English week' in which teams have a busy period of games with a midweek fixture, as is common in the English game at this time of year.
Dortmund play high-flying Wolfsburg and fellow strugglers Werder Bremen before the winter break, and Klopp will have to shuffle his deck in order to try and earn some much-needed points.