Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Matheus Cunha has been ruled out for the foreseeable future with a "significant" hamstring injury.
The 24-year-old has emerged as Wolves' key player under Gary O'Neil, starting each of their 24 Premier League fixtures this season.
A total of nine goals and six assists have been contributed, playing a direct part in more than 40% of Wolves' goals in the top flight during 2023-24.
However, during the early stages of Saturday's encounter with Brentford, the Brazil international went down clutching his hamstring and was forced to be withdrawn.
At the time, the hope had been that the versatile attacker would only miss a number of weeks and return before the March international break.
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Instead, head coach O'Neil has indicated that Cunha could potentially be sidelined until for longer, describing the development as "a big blow", albeit without revealing a potential timeline for his recovery.
Speaking to the club's official website, O'Neil said: "It's a fairly significant injury to his hamstring. There's no timeline on it. I've spoken to Matheus a lot and he just wants to keep pushing to get back as soon as he can.
"He's started working on it already, so we're just going to monitor it week by week, day by day, see how far he can come and how quickly we can get him back. He's keen to get back out there as soon as possible.
"It's obviously a big blow to us, to the team and Matheus because of the work he's been doing – the form he was in was exceptional. These things happen, every team suffers injuries. Channy (Hwang Hee-chan) was gone for over a month with the Asian Cup and we managed to keep ploughing on and we need to do the same without Matheus."
Earlier in the campaign, Wolves lost Pedro Neto for just over two months with a hamstring injury, while Hwang's recent absence due to the Asian Cup means that Wolves have not had their preferred front three start the same game since the end of October.
Having failed to sign a new striker in January, Pablo Sarabia, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and teenager Nathan Fraser are the only remaining options for Wolves in the final third.
Darren Plant
