Less than 10 minutes into Atletico Madrid’s first match of the new season against Granada on Monday night, club captain Koke pulled up with a suspected muscular injury, later revealed to be a hamstring complaint.
The 31-year-old has been instrumental for Diego Simeone over the years, although Atletico’s head coach will not have Koke at his disposal for the next three matches, as reported by Marca. It means that he will miss the matches against Real Betis, Sevilla and Rayo Vallecano.
The bad news doesn’t stop there for Simeone. Angel Correa has suffered an ankle knock, which has ruled him out for this weekend’s match against Betis, while first-choice right-back Nahuel Molina will also not play as he has failed to recover from injury in time.
Injuries blighted Atletico Madrid at the back end of last season, and Simeone will be worried about this happening again this campaign. However, he will still have full confidence in his squad to continue picking up good results.
