Leicester City defender Conor Coady will miss Sunday’s season opener at home to Coventry with a foot injury.
New Foxes boss Enzo Maresca is not sure how long they will be without the 30-year-old summer signing from Wolves.
Coady, who was injured in a friendly with OH Leuven, misses a meeting with new Coventry signing Ellis Simms, his team-mate for the second half of last season while on loan at Everton.
“Coady won’t be with us on Sunday and for the next games,” said Maresca.
“It’s a big shame. Not only because he’s a good player but also because he’s a leader. You can hear his voice. He’s talking with everybody. When you have this kind of player on the pitch, it’s a boost for the manager.
“We are still waiting to see how he improves. Then we can finally have an idea about the time. That’s why we don’t know the timing because they are still analysing the situation.”
The Foxes have two other players out injured, Victor Kristiansen and Alex Smithies, but Jamie Vardy, Dennis Praet and Wout Faes are fit after missing last Sunday’s final pre-season friendly – the 4-0 defeat by Liverpool in Singapore.
Beaten Championship finalists Coventry’s meeting with the 2016 Premier League champions is made more complicated by transfer talk surrounding Brazilian midfielder Gustavo Hamer – and the continued speculation linking the Sky Blues with United States international striker Haji Wright.
Hamer, who still has a year left on his current deal, is expected to make his first appearance since limping off at Wembley – but Robins has already admitted that he has been the subject of bids from elsewhere.
As for 25-year-old Wright, he is reported to have been at the Sky Blue Lodge training base at Ryton since Wednesday and is understood to have passed his medical, but the projected £7.7m move from Turkish side Antalyaspor is yet to be completed.
City boss Mark Robins, who made his eighth summer signing last week, does not now expect to have Wright signed up by Sunday.
“What we have is what we’ve got,” he said. “We’re trying to do things but things are pretty slow moving.
“My thoughts are working with the players who are in the building and getting a really good performance on Sunday.”
His only decision is whether to risk last season’s first-choice keeper Ben Wilson, who was kept out of the Sky Blues’ friendlies with a back problem, or give a debut to another summer signing Brad Collins.
