Tottenham defender Michael Dawson will see a specialist about his troublesome Achilles injury next week amid fears the defender could require surgery that will keep him out of action for months.
Dawson suffered the injury shortly after Spurs' 5-1 defeat against Manchester City on August 28.
The initial diagnosis was the defender would be out for two months, but he raised hopes he would make an early return two weeks ago when he started running with the rest of the Spurs squad.
The 27-year-old was forced to return to carrying out purely gym work soon after, however, and Tottenham's medical staff have deemed the defender must see a specialist to see if his rehabilitation has been seriously hampered.
"Michael is going for a scan on Wednesday on his Achilles and at the moment he's not feeling happy with it. It could be a long-term problem for him," said manager Harry Redknapp.
"Michael started to run but didn't feel good. He felt the same pain, had another scan and now has to go to specialist on Wednesday again to see why.
"Until he sees the specialist we don't know if they want to operate on him, which we don't want.
"An operation would be a long job, we're hoping there is nothing there and it's part of what he'll feel from scar tissue or something. The last resort is an operation."
