Mohamed Toure is set to miss Australia's World Cup send-off matches in Sydney and Melbourne after Norwich City confirmed his groin injury will keep him out of action for four to six weeks.
The young Socceroos' striker had been in sensational form for the English Championship side, having started life at Carrow Road in record-breaking fashion by becoming the first Canaries' player in 117 years to score five goals - including a hat-trick - in his first three matches.
In only his fifth match for the club on Wednesday after his move from Danish club Randers, the 21-year-old's meteoric launch came to an abrupt end after just nine minutes against Sheffield Wednesday when he screamed out in agony after injuring his groin and had to be replaced.
Norwich boss Philippe Clement, who's overseeing an injury crisis at the second-tier club, clarified on Friday that Toure was struggling with a groin problem and was going to be a big miss for them.
"He has a muscle injury," said the Belgian boss. "He will be out four to six weeks. It's a disappointing one, of course, because it's also one nobody saw coming so fast in the game.
"He was in full speed and then in a duel out of balance, so it's really unlucky one, and we need to move on."
The injury means Toure looks likely, as had been feared, to miss Australia's World Cup send-off friendlies against Cameroon at Sydney's Accor Stadium on March 27 and versus Curacao at Melbourne's AAMI Park four days later.
But though it's disruptive to manager Tony Popovic's preparations, at least it doesn't appear the injury is serious enough to keep Toure out of action for the tournament itself in June.
Toure is just one of a long list of Socceroos players who've all been battling injury concerns, including Lewis Miller, Harry Souttar, Craig Goodwin, Connor Metcalfe, Hayden Matthews, Noah Botic and Cammy Devlin.
It's bad news too for Norwich, who currently have 13 players unavailable as they seek to steer clear of a relegation battle and look forward to a glamour FA Cup fifth-round tie next week at Premier League side Leeds.
But Toure promised in an Instagram post that though he was "absolutely gutted" about the "minor setback", he knew he would be back "stronger & better."
