Schalke head coach Andre Breitenreiter has announced that defender Atsuto Uchida will miss the rest of the football season owing to a persistent knee injury.
The 27-year-old Japan international hasn't made one appearance this season so far after undergoing a surgery on his patellar tendon last summer, reports Xinhua.
The defender is still in his homeland and "will spend more time in Japan," Breitenreiter said on Tuesday.
"It is important that he fully recovers. It is unfortunately a fact that he will no longer play a role in the second half of the season."
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Uchida joined the "Royal Blues" in summer 2010 to score once in 104 appearances. He has played 71 matches for Japan since his debut in 2008.
Schalke sit in the seventh place in the Bundesliga standings.
