Bristol City head down to Hertfordshire on Friday ahead of the Robins facing Watford at the weekend. But key defender Alfie Mawson will not be with the squad as the central defender has picked up a knee injury.
The 27-year-old loanee has returned to parent club Fulham for assessment after picking up a medial knee ligament tear in the game against Sheffield United.
The player did not leave the pitch in any obvious discomfort but the adrenaline of playing during the match may have masked the knock sustained during the fixture. Andi Weimann picked up his anterior cruciate ligament injury in the home game against Swansea City and wasn't immediately aware, trying to play on temporarily before being withdrawn from the game by comparison.
If the injury is a grade 2 knock, Mawson is estimated to be out for a month. If grade three, the Cottagers loanee may be out for two months or more and miss most of the rest of the campaign.
Meanwhile Chris Martin has been confirmed as being out for 12 weeks. The forward had successful surgery on his hamstring this week and started his rehabilitation that is due to rule him out until roughly 7 May, a day before the final game of the season.
Bristol Live reported recently that the striker is expected to be out for the rest of the campaign and that looks likely unless City were to make the play-offs, with a vital game against Watford coming up and the chance to take points off Reading and Middlesbrough in the next weeks.
As well as being without Mawson and Martin (with no update on Joe Williams after the player was taken off with an apparent knock from the game in midweek; diagnosed as a tight hamstring by Dean Holden after the game), Bristol City have allowed third choice goalkeeper Jojo Wollacott to leave on loan.
The 24-year-old has joined Swindon Town for one game only as emergency cover: to face Bristol Rovers no less, in a possibly pivotal game regarding the bottom of League One.
The managerless Gas host John Sheridan's side on Saturday with both teams on 24 points but Rovers a place outside the drop zone courtesy of their better goal difference.
And it would be some story if the on-loan Bristol City goalkeeper helped to push the blue side of the city further into the mire at the weekend.
