FC Schalke 04's captain Benedikt Howedes 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.
