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Arturo Vidal reportedly set to miss Chile's World Cup opener against Australia

Crap.

Harold Cunningham

It seems as though Arturo Vidal's troublesome right knee is still giving the Juventus midfielder some issues and could very well have a huge impact on his native country getting out of the group stages at the 2014 World Cup.

From our friends over on the SBN mothership:

Chile looks to be without their biggest star for their World Cup opener, and they're hoping that's the only game he misses. Midfielder Arturo Vidal did not train on Monday, instead watching the session in street clothes. According to CONMEBOL.com, Vidal is unlikely to play in Chile's match against Australia on Friday.

Despite what both the Juventus doctors were saying before Vidal left for international duty and then the Chile docs basically confirmed, it was almost always going to be a race against time for King Arturo to get healthy. The initial diagnosis was for Vidal to miss around four weeks, but that doesn't seem to accurate at this point. Why's that? Because of this:

That was said exactly one month ago. It's been nearly five weeks since Vidal underwent the surgery to repair the meniscus problem in his right knee. Seeing as though Chile have to face Spain on Wednesday, June 18, keeping Vidal out may be the best for all parties involved.