Mexico boss Gerardo Martino has suggested that Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Raul Jimenez is likely to remain sidelined for a number of weeks.
The 31-year-old has endured a mixed start to the campaign, scoring once in his three starts and one substitute outing in all competitions.
However, Jimenez has been hit by injury on two occasions, the first being a knee issue which occurred towards the end of pre-season and kept him out until August 20.
Having accumulated his 297 minutes of the season between that date and the end of the month, Jimenez was forced to withdraw from the Wolves squad during the warm-up ahead of the meeting with Southampton on September 3.
While Wolves have indicated that muscle fatigue played its part in his latest setback, the former Benfica man is also dealing with a groin injury.
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Jimenez has spent the international break with his national team, despite having no chance of featuring in either of their two friendlies.
The decision was made for Jimenez to spend some time with the group which is pencilled in to represent Mexico at the World Cup, which starts in November.
Nevertheless, Martino has hinted that it is far from a foregone conclusion that Jimenez will be fit to participate in the tournament in Qatar.
As quoted by Depor, Martino said: "I am optimistic. The injury is worrying, but the goal is to help him recover and not throw in the towel, think he's going to get there.
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"Don't change your head. When I went to eat with him I saw that he is positive. We have to take care of his injury and he shouldn't stop being positive."
Martino's comments suggest that there is little prospect of Jimenez returning to Premier League action with Wolves for the foreseeable future.
Wolves have nine matches scheduled up to and including November 12, starting with the away game at West Ham United on October 1.
The West Midlands outfit recently signed Diego Costa on a free transfer having been left without a fit centre-forward, a consequence of recent arrival Sasa Kalajdzic suffering a serious knee injury.
Darren Plant
