Dundee boss Paul Hartley has revealed that on-loan Cardiff striker Rhys Healey has played his last game for the Dark Blues.
The 20-year-old had to be stretchered off against Partick Thistle two weeks ago after suffering an ankle injury.
It has now been confirmed that the recovery period may extend beyond his loan deal and he has returned to his parent club.
Hartley is now assessing whether to bring front man Craig Wighton back from his loan spell at Raith when it ends in January to cover for the loss of Healey and has discussed the situation with Rovers manager Ray McKinnon.
The Dens boss said: “Rhys is away back to Cardiff because of the extent of the injury.
“They wanted him back because it’s going to be between six to eight weeks and there’s the possibility of surgery as well.
“He is Cardiff’s player so they wanted him back to assess him.
“It’s a blow because he had been doing well.
“If it needs surgery, he could be out for months, so I don’t know what will happen.
He added: “I spoke to Ray to see where we stand and he said that Craig will get a run in the team.
“We’re a bit short up front with Healey going back so we’ll have to look at it.
“We will see where we are in the next couple of weeks. Craig can’t come back until January but we’ll possibly have to look at it.
“Craig hasn’t played as much as he would like but he came on the scene at 15 and had great expectations put on him.
“We’ve had to nurse him along and hopefully being out on loan means we’ll see a real maturity from him when he comes back.”
While Healey may have returned to his parent club, Hartley did confirm that he is bolstered by having the luxury of a full squad to choose from for the first time this season for tomorrow’s testing fixture against Hearts at Tynecastle.
The manager added: “Against Hearts earlier in the season we were terrific in the first 45 minutes and could have been a couple of goals up.
“But we faced a different Hearts team in the second half.
“This is the first time I have had a full squad this season, which is great.
“It’s a good headache to have now that everyone is back, there are places up for grabs.
“A lot of people have looked at our start and been a bit negative on it, but we have the same points as Ross County sitting in fifth.
“We feel we’re not too far away and when we get our strongest team together we believe we should be pushing for the top six.”