Fabrizio Ravanelli might have played his last game for Derby County, manager John Gregory has admitted.

The former Italian international had an operation on Monday to cure an Achilles problem and he is expected to need at least three months to recover.

That would take Ravanelli close to the end of his contract at Pride Park - which expires at the end of the current season.

The former Juventus and Middlesbrough star is on very high wages - said to be around �40,000 per week - and Derby can scarcely afford that money now they are out of the Premiership.

With that in mind, Gregory hinted after Monday's 3-2 victory against Wimbledon that a deal could be struck before Christmas to make Ravanelli a free agent.

I don't see enough people here that will go that extra yard to win something John Gregory

"Three months is going to take us into February and possibly March. We could get him back in January but it's so much up in the air," Gregory said.

"The financial people at the club will need to sit me down or sit Fabrizio down and make a decision.

"If there's no chance of Fab ever coming back to play it will be a lost cause so something may be done within the next four or five weeks.

"We'll have to let him get over this operation and take it from there."

Gregory also said that Craig Burley - who made his comeback from injury in Monday's game - could be another player to leave the club.

"If we need to press the button and allow Craig to move on then that's what we'll do.

"There are a lot of financial implications in everything we do at the moment and if an offer comes in for a player, as it did for Mart Poom, we have to listen and try to make some savings."

Despite Monday's victory Gregory has accused his players of lacking the ambition to get the club back into English football's top flight.

"Derby County, over the last two or three years, have been pretty awful at stringing together sequences of unbeaten matches," said the manager.

"It's exceptionally important that if we've got any illusions about getting into a promotion play-off place we've got to get our act together.

"But it's something that runs through this football club. I don't see enough ruthless people here that want it bad enough.

"I don't see enough people here that will go that extra yard to win something."