Hamburg set to miss Mahdavikia

UEFA - Hamburger SV must negotiate two major hurdles in their season without midfield player Mehdi Mahdavikia.

The German club have made an impressive start to the 2005/06 campaign, winning the UEFA Intertoto Cup to enter the UEFA Cup while claiming four victories from six league games to lie second in the Bundesliga. However, they will go into Saturday's top-of-the-table match at home to FC Bayern München, plus the vital UEFA Cup trip to Danish side FC København the following Thursday, without their influential Iranian international.

Mahdavikia, 28, sustained a calf injury in Wednesday night's 2-1 success at VfB Stuttgart. The problem will rule him out of both games, and his absence could be particularly felt at København as Hamburg could only draw the first leg of their first-round tie 1-1 at the AOL Arena.