Schalke 04 forward Ciprian Marica will miss their Bundesliga game against promoted Greuther Fuerth on Saturday after the Romanian returned with muscle problems from international duty this week, the club said.
Schalke, who travel to Olympiakos in their Champions League season premiere next week, also saw Austrian Christian Fuchs and Finland's Teemmu Pukki pick up minor knocks while playing for their national teams but said they would be fit for Saturday.
The Ruhr Valley club are in fourth place with four points, two off leaders Bayern Munich.
Bayern striker Claudio Pizarro could equal the record for most Bundesliga games by a foreign player if he takes to the pitch against Mainz 05 on Saturday.
The record of 336 league games is jointly held by Brazilian Ze Roberto and Georgia's Levan Kobiashvili, neither of whom currently play in the top German division.
Peruvian Pizarro, who returned to Bayern this season after four years at Werder Bremen and a two-year spell at Chelsea, already holds the Bundesliga record for the all-time best foreign striker with 160 goals.
Hoffenheim defender Chris has been ruled out for at least three weeks with a torn muscle as his team seeks to rebound from a bad start with a win at Freiburg on Sunday.
The new signing, who joined from VfL Wolfsburg, was injured in training on Wednesday and will be unable to help Hoffenheim, who have lost both their league games so far in their worst start to the Bundesliga.
