Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne’s injury woes have been well documented during the first few weeks of the tournament. Both of them have already missed a chunk of the tournament and are now expected to sit out during Belgium’s quarter final meeting with Italy.

Eden Hazard suffered a muscle twinge during Belgium’s match against Portugal and had to be taken off just before the final muscle with what looked like a hamstring injury at first viewing.

Hazard’s injury problems have persisted over the last two years since his move to Real Madrid. He doesn’t look like the same player anymore and Yannick Carrasco should be a worthy replacement for the Belgium captain who was having little to no impact.

With that being said, Belgium will surely miss the services of Kevin de Bruyne as he has been instrumental so far. De Bruyne, Lukaku and Thorgan Hazard have been the three stand out attacking players in Belgium’s campaign. De Bruyne got injured courtesy of a bad tackle by Joao Palhinha.

He soldiered on for a while, but was substituted later on due to the ankle injury. Belgium will hope that de Bruyne is fit sooner rather than later.

“We will take 48 hours now to assess the situation of the two players. We go back to Belgium now and they will have scans on the injuries tomorrow,” Martinez said at his post-match news conference.

At the moment, it looks like the pair will definitely miss Belgium’s quarter final match against Italy. While Eden Hazard’s tournament might be over as muscle injuries take time to recover, Kevin de Bruyne might be fit for Belgium’s semi-final match if they progress to that stage.

Yannick Carrasco and Dries Mertens are expected to play the match against Italy and it is safe to say that Belgium will still have a great chance of winning the game given the amount of quality they have in their team.

Italy and Belgium will face off against each other on Friday at Munich.