John Egan has been ruled out of the Republic of Ireland's March World Cup qualifiers after Sheffield United confirmed he will undergo surgery on a dislocated toe.
The centre-back was injured after a collision with Jesse Lingard in Sheffield's 3-0 defeat to West Ham on Monday.
Egan, 28, was stretchered off the pitch following the incident.
Sheffield boss Chris Wilder has confirmed Egan will be out of action for eight weeks.
“He needs an operation on a dislocated toe,” Wilder said. “It's a situation where John's gone to block a shot, and we knew he was in trouble straightaway. It’s a big blow to lose him for eight weeks.
“I do feel we’ve been cursed with injuries. I feel for the medical staff, they’ve been outstanding for two or three years.
“We've had big injuries that have hurt us, there was talk about overplaying and muscle injuries but we’ve had few of them. We’ve had John Fleck falling and breaking his back, Jack O’Connell colliding with Dean Henderson, Oli McBurnie falling and hurting his shoulder and now John Egan hurting himself making a tackle.”
Egan will now miss Ireland's first two 2022 World Cup qualifiers against Serbia on March 24th and Luxembourg on March 27th.
The defender will be a huge loss to Stephen Kenny as he looks to guide the Boys in Green to a positive start in their bid to reach the World Cup.
