Grant Hanley will miss the 'foreseeable future' with a shoulder injury, with Norwich City's medical staff set to assess the extent of the issue over the coming days.
Hanley was forced to withdraw during the first-half of City's loss to Manchester United on Saturday.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, head coach Dean Smith said: "There's no fracture with Grant Hanley's shoulder, but he'll be in a sling for next ten days.
"He's out for the foreseeable. It's not dislocated, but he's got some ligament damage so we'll have to see on that."
On a positive note defensively, Dean hopes to see Ben Gibson back fit for the visit of Aston Villa on Tuesday night.
The City boss also provided an injury update on his other centre-backs.
"Gibbo will train today (Monday), so we're hopeful for him. Andrew (Omobamidele) is out still, he's got a stress response in lower back so he'll be out for a couple of weeks. Christoph (Zimmermann) is not yet running at the moment, he'll be running indoors over the next week or so.
On Milot Rashica and Mathias Normann, Dean said: "Mathias Normann hasn't trained so he won't be ready. Milot Rashica is back out running, so we'll hopefully have him back ready for Arsenal (on Boxing Day).
To finish, Dean provided an update on City's situation with Covid cases: "At the moment, we've had the one confirmed case (Christos Tzolis). He's isolating at home, but otherwise, we're fine at the moment.
"We're relieved it's just one. We've been told there's a wave on its way. We're highly vaccinated, I've had my booster, and we're hoping to get more boosters as soon as possible."