Less than a week after playing a key role in the late goal that sent Sweden to the World Cup, Gustav Lundgren's dreams of playing at the finals are in tatters after he tore his Achilles tendon while warming up for his first league game of the season on Monday.
Lundgren, whose raid down the right and into the penalty area set up Viktor Gyokeres to fire Sweden's 88th-minute winner in a thrilling 3-2 playoff victory over Poland, faces an operation and rehab, rather than World Cup group games against Tunisia, the Netherlands, and Japan.
"I'm a bit in shock. I haven't really understood what happened or what it means," he told reporters as he left the arena on crutches. "Everything indicates that the Achilles tendon has ruptured. That will be a fairly long absence, this season is more or less over."
A late bloomer, the 30-year-old GAIS winger was playing in the third tier of Swedish football as recently as 2022, and few would have tipped that he would be called up to Graham Potter's Sweden squad three years later.
His disappointment at missing the tournament was palpable as he spoke to reporters in Gothenburg following a 1-0 defeat for his club side in their league opener against Djurgarden.
"(Being in the World Cup squad) was not something I took for granted ... but it is sad not to give yourself the chance to get the opportunity to be there and have that possibility. It will probably take a few days to understand what happened," he said.