FC Schalke 04's captain Benedikt Hoewedes will be out of action with a hamstring injury for 12 weeks, the German football club's sporting director Horst Heldt has confirmed.
The defender suffered the injury during the 2-0 victory over the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in Florida eight days ago, reports Xinhua.
The "Royal Blues" assumed that Hoewedes would be sidelined for six weeks; however, further medical examinations have revealed that the injury is worse than initially thought.
Schalke will be thus at least for three months without the Germany international.
"Benedikt will miss a lot of games. He would be ready for action at the 29th match day, by then the season is almost over," Heldt said on Tuesday.
Schalke's 27-year-old team captain will not only miss the Bundesliga match against Werder Bremen on January 24 but also the Europa League double header against Ukrainian outfit FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the round of the last 32.
The sixth-placed "Knappen" sit 19 points adrift of front-runners Bayern Munich, who kick off the second half of the Bundesliga campaign on January 22.