Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster has confirmed that he will be unavailable for the next few weeks with a broken finger and tendon and ligament damage.
Speaking on his personal YouTube channel, The Cycling GK, Foster revealed the damage was sustained during the warm-up prior to the home win over Rotherham United on December 8.
Since then he has played six games, but there has been no sign of recovery and the advice now is to rest the injury for a period of time, meaning reserve goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann will get a run of games.
"It's Friday afternoon, it's matchday, but the only problem is I'm not fit and I can't play," said Foster at the start of his latest video.
"The finger that I broke about five weeks ago, I did it in the warm-up before the Rotherham game, I've snapped a little bit of bone and the tendon and the ligament, all sorts of bits and bobs like that.
"I've been trying to play with it for the last five weeks and it hasn't got any better which is a little bit of a problem to be honest with you because I've done loads of these things before. I've done them and after two weeks they get a little bit better, after three weeks they're nearly gone and four weeks they're fully gone. However, this one is not getting any better whatsoever and that is a little bit of a problem.
"I went for another x-ray last week and the specialist said I need to basically just shut down now, I'm going to basically have to take a few weeks off, fully rest my hand and hopefully that'll do the job and I'll be back at it in no time."
The injury leaves Watford a little bit short in the goalkeeping department with only 21-year-old Adam Parkes available as back up, should Bachmann pick up an injury.
Recalling Pontus Dahlberg from his loan at BK Hacken is not an option, after he underwent surgery earlier this month for a blood clot behind his collar bone.
The Swedish side's team doctor Henrik Eriksson told Afton Bladet that he would be out for a couple of months.
"Assuming that everything goes well, we expect Pontus to be back in a couple of months, but it is too early to say anything," he said.
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