Tottenham have been a fresh injury blow, with Ange Postecoglou saying defender Cristian Romero will be sidelined for up to five weeks with the hamstring strain which forced him off at half-time in Saturday's 2-1 win over Everton.
Spurs are already without Romero's centre-half partner Micky van de Ven, who has been injured since November 6 with a hamstring strain of his own - although Postecoglou is hopeful the Dutchman will be back to face Manchester United on January 14.
The loss of Romero is another major blow for depleted Spurs, with Postecoglou now facing a choice between out-of-favour Eric Dier, full-back Emerson Royal or youngster Ashley Phillips, 18, to partner Ben Davies for the next three games.
"It’s not so great with Romero, he had a scan the other day, he’s got a hamstring strain. So we’re looking at probably four weeks, five weeks for him," Postecoglou said ahead of Thursday's visit to Brighton.
Spurs then host Bournemouth on New Year's Eve and Burnley in the FA Cup third-round on January 5 before facing United in mid-January.
Van de Ven told the crowd at the World Darts Championship this week that he would be fit again in two weeks and Postecoglou acknowledged that he was closing in on a return.
"I wouldn't be taking players' views on their recovery process!" the head coach said.
"He's getting closer, we'll see him sometime in January.
"I don't think Burnley but Manchester United on the 14th I think potentially.
"But again, I don't look at comeback dates until I see them training with us and he's not part of the group. He's not due to be part of the group this week, we'll see how he's going by the end of the week.
"Once they start training with the group we'll think about when they'll be available. He's at the tail end of it for sure so at some point - middle of January definitely we'd think he'd be available but how we use him then, after such a long absence, is going to depend on where we feel he's at."
Spurs are also without James Maddison, Ivan Perisic, Manor Solomon, Rodrigo Bentancur and Ryan Sessegnon to long-term injuries, while Yves Bissouma will serve the second of a four-match ban against Brighton.
Bissouma, Pape Sarr and captain Heung-min Son will all miss up to six weeks of the season from early January at international tournaments.
