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Atletico Madrid defender Sime Vrsaljko suffers serious knee injury

Atletico Madrid right-back Sime Vrsaljko is likely to face a long spell on the sidelines after sustaining a serious knee injury in their 3-1 home win over Sevilla on Sunday.

With just a minute on the clock, the defender went into a tackle and immediately went down holding his knee, and was substituted by Juanfran.

Diego Godin, Antoine Griezmann and Koke scored the goals to give Diego Simeone a much-needed victory that closed the gap on third-placed Sevilla to two points.

An MRI scan after the game showed that Vrsaljko suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury to his left knee, with more tests required to determine how bad the damage is.

Vrsaljko will miss Croatia's World Cup qualifier against Ukraine on Friday and is unlikely to take to the field whe Atletico go up against English champions Leicester City in the Champions League quarterfinals tie on April 13 and 19.