Lucas Leiva will miss the start of the Premier League season after scans revealed the extent of the Liverpool midfielder's hamstring injury.
The Brazilian pulled up in the Reds' friendly win at Huddersfield Town on Wednesday night and scan results have indicated the strain will leave him out for around four weeks.
Despite the injury, the 29-year-old joined his teammates to travel to California for the first leg of their pre-season tour of America.
He will continue to receive treatment at the Reds' base in Silicon Valley, but will play no further part in their warm-up friendlies - having featured in all of their first four back in the UK.
Lucas joins a growing injury list, with Joe Gomez and Mamadou Sakho both out with Achilles problems that are expected to keep them out of the start of the coming campaign.
Joel Matip is also still recovering from ankle bruising that kept him out of the clash with Huddersfield, although he is expected back in training next week with the issue considered relatively minor.
But it will be a big blow to Lucas, who might have been hoping to use pre-season as a chance to prove to Jürgen Klopp that he remains worthy of a first-team place.
The experienced defensive midfielder, who played at centre-back at times last term, has been touted with a move away from Merseyside once again this summer.
Now the Reds' longest-serving player after Martin Skrtel's departure, Lucas - who joined back in 2007 from Gremio - has been linked with a move to Turkey.
Long-serving Lucas' future once again up in the air
Galatasaray's club director Levent Nazifoglu told GSTV that "one of the players" they are interested "is Leiva" although he declared "there are other alternatives."
But injury could affect their pursuit for Lucas, who was on the verge of a switch to Galatasaray's rivals Besiktas last term.
Then, a combination of injury to captain Jordan Henderson and the 24-time capped Brazil international's excellent display in a goalless draw away at Arsenal saw manager Brendan Rodgers call the transfer off.
Lucas made 38 appearances last season, surpassing the 300 milestone for the club in the process, and even captained Klopp's side on eight occasions.
He was reported to be of interest to Newcastle United as they thrashed out the terms of a deal for Georginio Wijnaldum, although the two clubs settled on a £25 million cash-only fee rather than including Lucas, or any other player, in part-exchange.
But with the competition for places in midfielder, Wijnaldum adding to Henderson, Emre Can, James Milner and Marko Grujic of those likely ahead of Lucas in the pecking order, a move could still materialise before the transfer window shuts.