Goalkeeper Danny Vukovic will miss the start of the Socceroos' World Cup qualifying campaign, and could miss the entire European football season, after he ruptured his achilles.
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In more bad news for Australian national team coach Graham Arnold, winger Martin Boyle will have surgery on a knee injury suffered playing for Hibernian and is not expected to play again this year.
Vukovic posted a photo of himself in his hospital bed after surgery on his left leg, which could rule the 34-year-old out of action for six to 12 months.
"... Surgery went well and have already started the recovery process. Honestly devastated...!" he tweeted.
Vukovic, who joined Genk in 2017 and won the Belgian title last season, played in the champions' opening match of the new league campaign on Saturday and was in goal for their Belgian Super Cup win on July 21.
He told SBS on Wednesday that he injured himself at the gym before training on Tuesday (local time).
"We were doing plyometrics before training and when it went I knew exactly and straight away what I had done," Vukovic said.
"I could be out for up to 12 months but if the achilles heals well, who knows, I could be back in six months."
In addition to missing international duty, Vukovic will be unavailable for Genk's return to European football's top club competition.
"In any case I will miss the group phase of the Champions League and the first part of World Cup qualifying," Vukovic said.
"I'm quite devastated actually but life goes on.
"I'll fight hard to get back as soon as possible, that's for sure."
In career-best form, Vukovic kept 14 clean sheets in 37 league matches in 2018-19 as Genk won their first domestic league title in eight years.
Scottish Premiership club Hibs said Boyle "is likely to be out of action for the foreseeable future".
Boyle, 26, had only recently returned from a similar injury sustained last December while preparing for Australia's Asian Cup tilt.
"There's no doubting it's a blow because I put everything into my recovery in the last few months," Boyle said on hibernianfc.co.uk.
"The positive is that I know what the rehabilitation entails, and I'm just determined to do things properly and get back to the level I know I can get to."
Three-times capped Vukovic was under-study to No.1 Matthew Ryan at the World Cup in Russia last year and the 2019 Asian Cup while Boyle has scored twice in three Socceroos appearances since his debut in November.
The Socceroos commence their Qatar 2022 qualifiers against Kuwait on September 10 before clashes with Nepal and Taiwan in October.
Australian Associated Press
