Red hot striker Teemu Pukki could miss the next four games revealed Daniel Farke after suffering a hamstring injury on international duty.
Farke confirmed Pukki was out of his plans for the weekend's return to Championship action at Nottingham Forest following an early exit in Finland's 2-0 Uefa Nations League win over Greece earlier this week.
'Teemu sadly returned injured from the international games with a muscle problem,' said Farke. 'It is just a small injury but he has to be out for two weeks, maybe three weeks. When you play every other day it means he could miss the next four games.
'That is disappointing and sad for our plans when such an important player, who is on fire and scoring goals, is ruled out.
'We have to handle it. We will find some solutions to be successful with him. He has damaged the hamstring and he felt it pretty early in the game. It is a small tear. We have worked with him each and every day and one thing is for sure he can't travel to Nottingham. He can't play against Aston Villa. I expect him to miss Brentford as week. We'll see how it develops.'
The head coach delivered a positive update on Kenny McLean, who is targeting a return following recent ankle surgery next month, along with fellow Scottish international Grant Hanley. The captain has not featured since the derby trip to Ipswich in a bid to repair a quad problem.
'Grant is not back to full fitness,' said Farke. 'We had the last scan on Thursday. It has improved but he is at 75pc. The scans showed it had improved and we hope to have him back in team training in the next two to three weeks. We must go without him until then.
'Kenny had surgery maybe 10 days ago and is on crutches. Hopefully he can throw them away on Monday. The same timescale as Grant. We want him on the training pitch in the middle of November.'
Farke reported no fresh injury worries from the rest of his squad for the trip to the City Ground.
'It is not so easy for young players to handle the mental and physical load,' said Farke. 'It was good Max (Aarons) only played one game, not two. He is well prepared and Jamal (Lewis) is also in a good condition. He did play both games but I think he just won an award and perhaps that helps the recovery.
'It looked pretty good in training and he is available too.
'With the lads who stayed here, Ben Marshall was out for a couple of days with some illness and then some slight knocks which is normal. Maybe a break for one day or whatever. The others are all good.'
Carlton Morris and Matt Jarvis remain longer term injury absentees while Nelson Oliveira is out of favour.
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