Due to a training ground injury, Mellon was unable to play in Oldham Athletic’s 2-2 home draw with Altrincham on Tuesday.
The depth of the damage has now been disclosed by the Latics manager, who initially termed it as “a finger injury.”
“Mat’s got a broken finger and he’s had a wire put in so he’s going to be a while,” said the man from Scotland.
“We won’t be seeing him for a number of weeks.”
Injuries are plaguing the Latics, and Hudson is the most recent in a string of extended absences in recent months.
“At the moment, it seems like we get one major one every week. I hope that can be stopped,” Mellon continued.
“We aren’t doing anything that increases the likelihood that athletes may sustain injuries. Because of the number of games, they aren’t training very much anyhow, so we’re wrapping them in cotton wool to try to ensure they’re available for the games.”
Captain Tom Conlon has been sidelined by a torn Achilles since December 21, Corry Evans suffered a calf injury on his debut at home to Aldershot on January 18, fellow midfielder Dan Gardner is recovering from a broken foot and Harry Charsley has been ruled out for the remainder of the season due to hip surgery.
Manny Monthe is also unlikely to feature again this season after suffering knee ligament damage in the win at AFC Fylde.
Two games later Reagan Ogle was a casualty of the win at Solihull, going off with a hip flexer problem in the second half.
James Norwood has recently returned from a groin injury that had troubled him since the new year, boosting an attack that had been limited to just two fit and available strikers in top scorer Mike Fondop and Billy Waters.
And Mellon is hoping to have more options available to him soon.
“Hopefully over the next week or two we start to see the return of maybe one or two – not the long-term ones but maybe the ones that have been long term – back into the group to give some fresh mentality, some fresh legs into the group and some different options,” said the Latics boss.
“We’re looking at the likes of Conlon coming back and Corry Evans, Dan Gardner in maybe two to three weeks.
“They would certainly give us some quality at a good time of the season, but at the minute we go with what we’ve got.
“But, listen, if we can keep this group together and prepared for every game we should be a match for anybody.”
