Cardiff City midfielder Gavin Rae is out for the rest of the season with a ruptured tendon in his ankle.
Manager Dave Jones broke the news ahead of Saturday's home match with play-off dark horses Reading.
Dave said: "Gavin goes in today for an operation. He has ruptured a tendon in his ankle. His season is over. He's had a bad ankle for some weeks and probably the long season we have had has contibuted to the rupture.
"He'll be fine, but he must go in for the operation. Gav's been an integral part of what we've been doing here and it's unfortunate for him, but we hope he'll be back for the start of next season. Recovery will take about 12 weeks.
"This is the time of the season when you normally pick up your injuries. Any coach or manager will tell you that. We've played a lot of games in the last month and we've been quite fortunate because we've had players coming back from long term injuries, they're a little bit fresher. But it was still a hard slog.
"Joe played around 30 minutes against Swansea and two days later he then played 90 minutes against Forest, which tells you how fit they are, but fatigue is the main reason why players are picking up injuries.
"In Gavin's case, he's played a lot of football over a short time and unfortunately it's taken its toll on him."
Dave is waiting on other injured players before finalising his team as fourth-placed City prepare to take on Raeding, one of only three teams outside the top six with any chance of catching Cardiff in the race to make the play-offs.
Peter Whittingham, Chris Burke, Kevin McNaughton and Gabor Gyepes are all candidates for a return, although it may take longer for Paul Quinn and long-term injury victim Mark Hudson.
Turning to Saturday'sopponents, Dave said: "I don't know Brian McDermott, but from the outside, he's done a fantastic job because he turned Reading's fortunes round, which is a great achievement and he'll want to continue that.
"Reading have always been a strong side and you can go through that bit of turmoil where nothing goes right for you. But Brian has been there a long time and knows the players and he'sprobably got them back to working the way they were. They have the know-how becaue they've done it before."
