Crewe Alexandra's on-loan midfielder Liam Smith is to return to parent club Newcastle United to recover from an ankle injury suffered during pre-season.
The 20-year-old joined League Two Alex on loan earlier this month until January 2017, but was hurt in a friendly against Bolton Wanderers on Friday.
"The good thing is he hasn't got any ligament damage or fracture - he's got bruising to the bone and it's difficult to know how long it'll take." boss Steve Davis told BBC Sport.
"They've said do nothing for 10 days and reassess to see if he can put any load on it so he'll go back to Newcastle for a short spell while he can't do anything. You could be looking at three weeks or it could be more or less than that.
"The good thing about him going back is that they have got things there medically that we haven't got here and can get the bruising down quicker than we could here."
Crewe were relegated from League One last season after finishing at the foot of the table.
Giuseppe Labellarte
