Roy Hodgson admits Crystal Palace centre back Scott Dann will not be fit in time to face Huddersfield Town next weekend.
The 31-year-old defender suffered a serious knee injury when playing for the Eagles against Manchester City on New Year's Eve last season and has been sidelined ever since.
Dann travelled to Palace's pre-season tour of Sweden, but reportedly trained separately from the group, and the former Blackburn Rovers man has not been included in any of Hodgson's matchday squads so far this season.
And the ex-England boss does not think that will change for at least another month.
Hodgson told Football.London: "He’s not very close. He won’t be playing in the under 23 games in the coming week.
"Scott is making excellent progress, but it was a serious injury and he is not due to be back before the end of September, the start of October.
"If he was to come back earlier, which is a possibility because I know the sports science people are happy, that would be a bonus.
"I would have to wait until they free him to join us, but then when he joins us, he will have been out for eight months and he will need time and won’t be going straight into any first team games.
"That's when U23 games might come in handy so he has a chance to play some football there."
Mamadou Sakho and Martin Kelly started in the heart of the Palace defence against Southampton last time out, with Dann and James Tomkins injured for the clash.
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But despite the long-term absentee being sidelined for another few weeks, Hodgson is still happy he has enough cover at centre back.
"There aren't many teams with more than four centre-halves in their squad," he said. "You have to be a big team to carry five centre-halves.
"Three senior goalkeepers, and five central defenders, that's eight of your 25 gone, just in two positions."
