Fábio Coentrão and Hugo Almeida are set to miss the rest of Portugal’s Group G campaign after both picked up muscle injuries in the 4-0 defeat to Germany on Monday.

Striker Almeida limped off midway through the first half before Real Madrid’s full-back Coentrão was carried off on a stretcher in the 65rd minute after hurting his groin to compound Portugal’s miserable start to the World Cup.

“I’m afraid that my World Cup has come to an end. I think it’s a serious injury, though I hope it’s not,” said Coentrão. “These things happen in our profession and, unfortunately, today it fell to me. It’s a very sad day, one of the saddest of my life. But this is just a game and despite the heavy defeat, we can still go through to the next round.”

Portugal’s team doctor Henrique Jones confirmed both players would be sidelined for “more than 10 days” and would miss the remaining group matches against the USA and Ghana.

Paulo Bento, the Portugal coach, is optimistic however, that both Coentrão and Almeida will feature again in Brazil.

“We should try to win the next two games so they can play in the next round,” Bento said.