DaMarcus Beasley's debut season at Rangers is in tatters after he was told he faces months out of action.
The winger, 25, will return to his native United States to undergo surgery on knee ligament damage sustained during Tuesday's Champions League match in Stuttgart.
Beasley was hurt in a collision with goalkeeper Raphael Schafer during the 3-2 defeat and left the pitch on a stretcher.
He will miss the make-or-break visit of Lyon in the final group game, which will determine if Rangers qualify for the knockout phases, and is also set to be sidelined for most of the remainder of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League campaign.
Manager Walter Smith admits the loss of the pacy American international is a body blow for the team, as well as the player himself.
"Beasley will be out for quite a lengthy period," he confirmed. "He has to go for an operation, which he will go to America for.
"We will have a better idea after that operation but it will be months before he is back. How many, I'm not quite sure, but it will certainly be months before he's back.
"It's a bigger blow for him in the sense that no player likes to be out for what could be a considerable length of time.
"For us, he was settling in and he was starting to do well. He has a bit of pace in the wider areas on the pitch so we will miss him."
With Nacho Novo also out of commission with a dislocated shoulder, Steven Naismith could come into the reckoning for the visit of his former club Kilmarnock at Ibrox tomorrow.
The 21-year-old replaced Beasley for most of the second half in Germany but his appearances have been limited since his August switch from Rugby Park.
"He comes into our thinking," said Smith. "He has been in our thinking for a lot of the games.
"He came to us just recently and it always takes a little bit of time to settle in.
"He's settling in now and he makes a good contribution whenever called upon so he will be in our thoughts for tomorrow's game."
Rangers appeared to struggle to cope with the demands of both domestic and European football earlier in the season but, having enjoyed a lengthy break ahead of last week's trip to Falkirk, Smith insists there are no excuses for dropping points tomorrow.
"In some periods of the season when there were some important games together, that may have been a contributing factor to a bit of inconsistency," Smith said.
"But certainly it shouldn't be the case just now. We've had a long enough break and the players should be ready for it.
"It's up to us to show the same approach to every game, it's not to do with the number of matches we've played.
"We've not had that many injuries so there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to cope with the fixtures that we have."
Killie returned to Rugby Park with all three points the last time they visited Ibrox and Smith admitted: "We expect a difficult match, as we expect from all the teams in the SPL.
"We have to play extremely well to overcome all the teams. We had a tough game down at Rugby Park earlier in the season and I would expect the same tomorrow.
"Kilmarnock also beat us 1-0 at Ibrox last season and we will have to be better than we were that day."
