BLACKBURN Rovers striker Craig Bellamy looks set to miss the whole of the Christmas period after he picked up an injury in training yesterday.

The former Newcastle star, who has been the inspiration behind Rovers' impressive start to the season, damaged his hamstring during a routine training session and manager Mark Hughes now fears he could be ruled out until the New Year.

The Welsh international will have a scan tomorrow to determine the full extent of the damage, but hamstring injuries tend to keep players sidelined for a minimum of two weeks and if turns out that Bellamy has suffered a tear then it could be mid-January before he's fit to return again.

News of Bellamy's injury could hardly have arrived at a worse time for Rovers as they prepare to enter the most hectic period of the season.

Over the next three weeks, Hughes' side face vital Premiership encounters against West Ham, Fulham, Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Wigan, not to mention a Carling Cup quarter final against Boro at the Riverside just three days before Christmas.

It's not the first time Bellamy has been injured this season - knee and thigh problems meant he missed a number of games in the early weeks of the season.

But, whenever he has played, the 26-year-old has looked a class act, scoring six goals in 13 appearances to make him the club's leading scorer.

Worryingly for Hughes, Rovers have won less than half of the seven games Bellamy hasn't started this season, which hardly augurs well going into the festive period.

But at least the Rovers boss can now call on fellow striker Paul Dickov again, who missed the Carling Cup win at Charlton last week because of injury.

Hughes will be praying that Bellamy hasn't suffered a tear, but, the striker looked to be in some discomfort as he hobbled around Rovers' Brockhall training base yesterday, his leg heavily strapped just above the knee area.