John Souttar faces being sidelined until next year after undergoing a major operation in a bid to finally cure a persistent ankle injury.
The Hearts defender was only expected to be out for up to a fortnight after being forced off just 39 minutes into the new Premiership season in the August 4 loss to Aberdeen .
Scans and consultations with some of the best specialists in the UK failed to throw any light on why Souttar was still continuing to feel pain.
It was only when a surgeon opened up the joint during a procedure on Thursday that the true extent of problem was revealed.
Jambos boss Craig Levein said: “The surgeon has never seen anything like it before and it was very unusual.
“He’s now got a cast on and that’s on for two weeks and he’ll wear a protective boot for four weeks. There’s six weeks immobile and generally you would have to double that for the time to come back to play.
“The frustration, for John, me and the medical team was that we couldn’t get to the problem of it, but now he is on the road to recovery.”
