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Your support makes all the difference.Scotland could be without Duncan Ferguson for their World Cup double- header against Latvia and Estonia next month.
The Everton striker is facing exploratory surgery today on a knee injury which would rule him out of Everton's Coca-Cola Cup return against York tomorrow night.
And, depending on the diagnosis, the Scotland manager Craig Brown could lose Ferguson for the games against Latvia on 5 October and Estonia four days later.
Ferguson has been troubled for some time with a knee problem and Everton are letting him have keyhole surgery tomorrow to assess the damage.
"It is not a serious problem but Duncan has been playing with this for the past few weeks," the Everton manager, Joe Royle, said. "He will have investigative surgery on his knee to see how bad it is and we will take it from there."
Ferguson could miss Saturday's match with Sheffield Wednesday as well as the York fixture, and would then be extremely doubtful for the Scotland double-header.
The 24-year-old striker ended a 20-month exile from international football in Scotland's goalless draw with Austria in Vienna last month, when he won his sixth cap and collected a yellow card.
Ferguson is expected to land a two-match suspension for his red card against Blackburn on Saturday from 12 October, leaving him almost four weeks to recover from surgery if needs be.
He could miss games against West Ham at Goodison and the Merseyside derby against Liverpool at Anfield on 20 October.
Brown was typically philosophical about another possible international call-off - Ferguson missed Euro 96 to have surgery on a groin injury.
"We will have to wait and see what happens and I can't say much more until we hear from Everton," Brown said. "We would love to have Duncan available for Latvia and Estonia as they are tricky away games, but we also have Sweden coming here in November and we want him fit for that one. It would appear he has a problem so obviously it is better for him to get it cleared."
Brown will name his Scotland selection on Thursday and the Rangers striker Ally McCoist, who partnered Ferguson in Austria, could be another problem, depending on the extent of his current calf injury.
Rangers could be playing to more than 15,000 empty seats in tomorrow's Champions' League match against Auxerre in Glasgow. Only 30,000 tickets have been sold for the Ibrox fixture, as Rangers look to recover from their dismal 3-0 opening game defeat at Grasshopper Zurich.
The Scottish champions expect attendances for their three home games to be similar to last season, even though the capacity at Ibrox has gone up and prices are down.
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