Celtic star Kyogo Furuhashi faces at least a couple more weeks on the sidelines, putting him in major doubt for the February 2 clash with Rangers.
The Japanese international aggravated a hamstring injury in the 3-1 win over St Johnstone in December and remains out for the Premiership return against Hibs.
Manager Ange Postecoglou was already sweating over an international call which could have ruled the Celtic forward out of the top of the table clash, with Asian World Cup qualifiers scheduled.
And speaking ahead of the home game with Hibs the Aussie boss admitted that Kyogo is some way away from returning to the pitch.
Postecoglou told BBC Radio Scotland: "It's fair to say he hasn't recovered from the injury.
"We're still getting some advice on it. He's not likely to feature in the next couple of weeks at least, it could be longer.
"In terms of definite time frames we're just getting some more info and hopefully during the week we'll know a little bit more."
It's a little over two weeks until Celtic face title rivals Rangers in a huge derby match at Parkhead, with fans focused on whether their talisman will be available.
But Postecoglou was not able to give a clear answer one way or the other when asked about the derby match.
The Celtic boss replied: "Mate, you're talking about a game that's four or five away from us.
"Anything past tonight is no real concern to me.
"From our perspective it's really important we start the second half of the year at a good level, a good intensity, set down a marker tonight and go from there."
