Stefan Ashkovski suffered a serious injury in Sunday’s league game between Novi Pazar and Radnik Surdulica.

Stefan Ashkovski, a left-back turned left-winger, will miss the remainder of the first half of the season in Serbia after he broke his jaw on Sunday. The long winter break starts in mid-December, or about 7 weeks from now, but Ashkovski is not likely to be back by then. A broken jaw takes anywhere from 6-10 weeks. Even assuming the 6 week timeline, it would be risky for Novi Pazar to rush Ashkovski for one final game before the winter break begins.

The broken jaw occurred in the 70th minute of Sunday’s encounter between Novi Pazar and Radnik Surdulica. Ashkovski, who originally entered the game at the start of the 2nd half, would only last 25 minutes before the injury took place.

Ashkovski, 23, became a regular national team call-up under now former manager Ljubinko Drulovic, but this injury will obviously rule him out for next month’s two friendlies. It was not clear, however, whether current coach Igor Angelovski planned to summon Ashkovski, like his predecessor, but we will not know due to this unfortunate injury.