Marc Skinner says Manchester United will assess Ella Toone after the international break, with a possibility that the England midfielder will not return to action until the new year.
Toone has missed United's last two games due to a calf injury sustained in training, and was not selected in Sarina Wiegman's Lionesses squad for the friendlies against the United States on November 30 and Switzerland on December 3.
United head to Chelsea in the Women's Super League live on Sky Sports this Sunday and then after the international break host Liverpool and go to Crystal Palace, either side of a League Cup match against Newcastle.
United boss Skinner told a press conference on Friday when asked about Toone: "We have three games [after the international break and before Christmas].
"There's always the hope, but I think you balance and you go, 'right, if we can get her back, we get her back'. But we're just not going to rush her in this moment because it's a calf injury, it's your running mechanism. If we injure the running mechanism, it takes longer.
"So ideally we'd like her back for those games afterwards. The projection is she misses this game [Chelsea], she misses the international window, probably misses the first game after that and then we'll see from there.
"But because it is such a short block of only three games, we'll assess whether it's worth that or actually resetting to come back after Christmas."
United could also be without forward Elisabeth Terland for the meeting with Chelsea at Kingsmeadow.
Skinner said: "Elisabeth in the game against Leicester [2-0 away win last weekend] felt a little bit of groin tightness, so she missed the game midweek [2-0 League Cup win at Everton], potentially will miss the game this weekend as well, but we're hopeful it's not a long-term thing.
"Hopefully after the international break she could come back and be fit and healthy."
Skinner's side head into Sunday's rescheduled fixture unbeaten after seven WSL games but having drawn three of them. They lie fifth, six points behind leaders Chelsea, who have won all of their matches since Sonia Bompastor succeeded Emma Hayes as boss during the summer.
