SONE Aluko has been forced to revisit a specialist as fears grow the Hull City striker may yet require surgery to solve his long-standing Achilles injury problem.
The Tigers' top scorer, who celebrates his 24th birthday today, had initially been hopeful of making his eagerly-awaited comeback before the end of the month to give Steve Bruce's promotion plans a lift.
However, having complained of discomfort during light training sessions last week, the reluctant decision was made to send Aluko back to a specialist for further examination.
The results of yesterday's latest tests will determine how much of a role Aluko can still look forward to playing in the final 11 weeks of the season, but the threat of surgery is causing obvious anxiety for City's medical team.
Bruce has already seen Matty Fryatt condemned to a six-month spell on the sidelines after protracted attempts to avoid Achilles surgery in autumn eventually proved in vain.
A similar fate for Aluko would cruelly rule him out of the remainder of the season, but City remain willing to give him every opportunity to avoid such a procedure given the high stakes of promotion.
Aluko's superb debut season at the KC has been plagued by injury since the end of November. Although he recovered to play a part in City's festive programme, a recurrence of the same Achilles injury ruled out him for between six and eight weeks in mid-January.
Despite starting just four of the last 16 games, Aluko remains City's top scorer with eight goals and any further absence could well push Bruce into the emergency loan market.
Peterborough's George Boyd has been the subject of interest from City this month and his creativity would go some way to filling the void.
DEFENDER Paul McShane has also undergone scans on his hamstring injury.
The 27-year-old sustained the muscle strain in the 1-0 win over Charlton on Saturday and he will hope the damage suffered is only minimal.
