Doyle, 24, had been on the verge of returning from injury after being forced off at half-time in Wellington’s 1-0 loss to Sydney FC a fortnight ago.

The left-back sustained the hamstring in a practice game in midweek, meaning he’ll also miss New Zealand’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against New Caledonia.

“We’ve got very strict protocols of what players need to achieve before they return back to training,” Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick said.

“He ticked every one of them and then played in the game yesterday and had a slight pull again.

“He’ll probably be out for three weeks.

“He may have been one of the boys called up for the All Whites, so we anticipated losing him next week anyway.”

Merrick also said Adam Parkhouse was progressing well after a hamstring strain and was a couple of weeks away.