Inter have confirmed that Alexis Sánchez has undergone surgery on his ankle to address the injury which he picked up on international duty.
The winger suffered tendon damage in his ankle whilst away with Chile, and he was sent to Barcelona on Wednesday to meet with a surgeon to assess the severity of the injury.
As noted by the club's official website, Sánchez met with specialist Dr Ramon Cugat, who recommended that surgery was the way forward. He has now had the operation, which Inter say was a success.
There is no mention of how long Sánchez will be on the sidelines for, but Chile manager Reinaldo Rueda suggested that it could be up to three months before the winger is able to return to action.
Should Rueda be correct and Sánchez does indeed need three months on the sidelines, the winger will miss the remainder of Inter's Champions League group stage fixtures, including meetings with both Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona.
Fortunately for Inter, the Serie A fixture list looks rather kind to them over the next few months. I Nerrazzuri will come face to face with the likes of Torino and Hellas Verona in the coming weeks, but their next top-of-the-table clash comes against Roma on 6th December.
After that, Antonio Conte's side face meetings with Fiorentina, Napoli and Atalanta over a period of five weeks, so they will certainly be eager to welcome Sánchez back to action as soon as possible.
Inter currently find themselves second in Serie A, just one point behind league leaders Juventus. It has been a fantastic start to the campaign for Conte's men, and they will hope that Sánchez's injury does not bring their momentum to a halt.
Conte's preference of playing two strikers means both Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martínez will likely play plenty of minutes over the coming months, whilst 17-year-old Sebastiano Esposito also stands to feature in some capacity.
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Source : 90min