Madrid, Oct 15 (IANS) Real Madrid will be without Croatian midfielder Luka Modric for between two and three weeks after the extent of the muscle injury he suffered while on international duty with Croatia was confirmed on Wednesday.

Modric suffered an injury to the right side of his groin playing in Croatia’s European Championship qualifying tie against Bulgaria last week and at first it was thought the injury would not be enough to keep him out of Real Madrid’s league match at home to Levante this Saturday, Xinhua reported.

However, test carried out by the club showed the injury is more serious than first thought and the talented playmaker will now miss the Levante game as well as next weekend’s trip to play in-form Celta Vigo as well as a difficult Champions League tie against Paris Saint Germain, next week.

Real Madrid will hope to have Modric fit for the following league game, which is at home to Las Palmas.

The club should be able to count on Sergio Ramos for this weekend after a shoulder injury kept him out of Spain’s last two games, but Karim Benzema is also a doubt after becoming another victim of the international break.