Shane Duffy is likely to miss Ireland's upcoming Euro 2020 qualifiers in October after incurring a calf injury in Brighton's Carabao Cup defeat to Aston Villa last night.
The central defender left the ground in crutches last night after last night's 3-1 home loss.
Brighton manager Graham Potter told the media this afternoon that Duffy will undergo a scan today but asserted that the Derry defender had suffered a calf injury which would leave him out of action for "a number of weeks."
This prognosis means Duffy will surely be unavailable for Ireland's crucial pair of away qualifiers against Georgia and Switzerland, with the game in Tbilisi just over a fortnight away (12 October) and the Geneva clash arriving three days later (15 October).
It has been an appalling 24 hours on the injury front for Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy who will this morning have been digesting the news that his other regular centre half Richard Keogh will miss the remainder of the season after sustaining a knee injury in a car crash on Tuesday evening.
With Enda Stevens already suspended for the Georgia game, McCarthy will now be without three of his regular cast of starting defenders when Ireland take on Vladimir Weiss's side in the first of the October qualifiers.
