Portugal have confirmed the extent of Bernardo Silva's injury as the Manchester City midfielder will miss their World Cup qualifier with Ireland this week.
Bernardo, who is in brilliant form for City, was absent from Portugal training on Monday with reported muscle issues, and he was again missing when the squad trained on Tuesday. They face Ireland in a must-win qualifier on Wednesday as they trail Serbia by a point with two games remaining.
Portugal boss Fernando Santos has now confirmed that Bernardo has 'muscle complaints' and will not be available for Wednesday's fixture in Dublin, handing City a fresh injury worry.
However, Santos did say that Portugal hope to have Bernardo available for their final showdown with Serbia on Sunday, giving City hope that his injury is not too serious.
"I don't count on him," Santos said on Wednesday.
"He has muscle complaints. I don't think he has the conditions to go to this game. We think he will be okay for Serbia."
Santos is quoted by Record as explaining that Bernardo arrived 'tired' from City when linking up with the national team.
He said: “He arrived tired, complaining, he has many games on him, and couldn’t go to training, but he’s recovering well and we hope and we believe he’ll be able to play here with Serbia.
“He won’t even travel with us, it doesn’t make sense because we don’t consider him to be at 100 percent. It wouldn’t be the best conditions for the treatment he’s undergoing, he’ll stay here so that he can start to join the group”.”
Portugal know that two wins from their final games will see them qualify for the 2022 World Cup as they have a game in hand over leaders Serbia. In fact, a win over Ireland will mean a draw would be enough to qualify against Serbia, as Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo are also in the squad to help reach the World Cup.
Cancelo and Dias will have to be careful in Ireland, as they could miss the crucial final game if they were to pick up a yellow card.
