Hamilton Accies boss John Rankin has revealed defender Steve Lawson will remain out for another six weeks as he continues his recovery from a broken metatarsal.
The 28-year-old hasn't featured since scoring a penalty against Ayr United in a 3-2 defeat on November 11 and Rankin admits it will be into the new year before Accies fans see the return of a popular and vital figure among the squad.
Accies play Inverness in the SPFL Trust Trophy fourth round on Saturday and Rankin expects to have the same squad to choose from as he did last week for the 4-0 Championship defeat to Queen's Park.
On Lawson, he said: "Steve's metatarsal is fractured so he will be out for a period of time, probably another six weeks.
"The outside of his metatarsal felt heavy when it happened so we knew he was going to be out for a while at the time."
Rankin also admitted there wasn't any good news on long-term absentee Jamie Hamilton and Newcastle United loanee Lucas de Bolle, who are still some way off match fitness following calf and concussion issues, respectively.
He added: "With regards to the rest of the injured players, we are not seeing a lot of progress.
"Jamie Hamilton is just running, going up and down stairs at the moment, but no football-related running at all at the moment so we don't know how far off he is.
"There is some progress on Lucas, but we still need to be patient.
"Peter Ramage, the Newcastle loans manager, is coming up today along with the Newcastle welfare officer as Lucas is back with us this week.
"So hopefully we can make progress with him, but it is a situation where we need to take each day as it comes.
"It's frustrating for everyone."
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