Maximilian Philipp will be out for "several months" after suffering a serious injury to his right kneecap in Borussia Dortmund's meeting with Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.
The forward sustained the problem in the opening 10 minutes of the 1-1 Bundesliga draw at the BayArena, and was carried from the field on a stretcher.
Dortmund have confirmed the severity of the problem, which looks likely to rule the 23-year-old out for the remainder of the campaign.
"Maximilian Philipp is missing unfortunately for several months," the club announced via their official Twitter account.
"The offensive player suffered a serious knee injury involving the kneecap in the Bundesliga game last Saturday in Leverkusen. Milli, we wish you get well soon!"
Maximilian wird dem BVB leider mehrere Monate lang fehlen. Der Offensivakteur erlitt im Bundesliga-Spiel am vergangenen Samstag in Leverkusen eine schwere Knieverletzung unter Beteiligung der Kniescheibe. Milli, wir wünschen dir gute Besserung! December 5, 2017
After arriving from Freiburg in the off-season, Philipp has netted six goals in 11 league outings for Peter Bosz's side.
