Garuccio suffered the ankle injury in training last week and Reds boss Guillermo Amor confirmed he has been ruled out of Adelaide’s AFC Champions League game against Jiangsu Suning on Tuesday.

Only last week the 21-year-old, who had a strong 2016/17 season, was called into Josep Gombau’s training camp ahead of the AFC Under-23 Championship qualifiers in Myanmar in July.

Adelaide said they’d need to see how Garuccio’s ankle recovers this week, but it’s expected he’ll need surgery, potentially sidelining him for six weeks.

“We must wait now,” Amor said. “We don’t know the time now. It depends day by day.

“This situation for Garuccio is not good, he was playing very well, he was playing fantastic.

“For him it’s hard, he was to go to the Under-23 with Josep Gombau and it’s possible now he doesn’t come. It’s difficult for him.”

Amor hinted that 20-year-old Ben Warland may replace Garccio at left-back for United in the must-win clash against Jiangsu.