Álvaro Morata has been officially withdrawn from the Spain squad for the two World Cup qualifiers coming up during this international break after his muscular injury was diagnosed as a “grade II myofascial injury to the hamstring muscles”. There are a few scary words in there, including the tendency for hamstring injuries to repeat.

Grade II is the middle of three grades assigned to soft tissue injuries and that automatically means multiple weeks out. Of course the fact Morata was sent back to Chelsea after joining up with the Spain was already an indicator that the injury was not minor and not something he could deal with in just a few days. Every injury is different, but grade II injuries can last up 6-8 weeks in bad case scenarios.

The term myofascial means that the injury is not a ligament or tendon injury, but rather an injury to fascia that surrounds all muscles and internal organs. If any of you ever had plantar fasciitis, you will unfortunately be quite familiar with how painful and annoying fascial injuries can be. As with most soft tissue injuries, recovery from myofascial injuries is usually measured in weeks, not days, and sometimes months.

Based on that diagnosis — rather than Conte’s more optimistic words immediately after — we’ll be very lucky to have Morata back immediately after the international break.