Medical update: Tommy Elphick out six weeks

The medical room may be running out of beds as Tommy Elphick looks like he is going to be occupying one for a more than a month.

It looked like bad news from the beginning — even Dean Smith admitted that after the big win over Derby — “I haven’t heard anything, we’ll have to see. It didn’t look good. We think it’s his ankle. We’ll do an assessment on Monday.”

Much like everything else Smith did on Saturday — he was right.

Express and Star reports the 31-year old defender has torn a ligament at the base of his foot. Estimated time of recovery is six weeks — putting the defender back at Smith’s disposal in the middle of April.

Elphick joins Captain James Chester, Axel Tuanzebe, and Alan Hutton as defenders out of the squad. Kortney Hause and Tyrone Mings are the only two senior center backs available — both are left footed so one of them is going to have to play on the more uncomfortable side. Hopefully some days in training will help ahead a crucial set of three matches in seven days starting Sunday (@Blues, @Nottenham Forest, Middlesbrough).

If either Hause or Mings go down — then Dean Smith will be faced with a decision: play a younger player in a natural position (Easah Suliman) or a veteran out of position (Mile Jedinak).