Bayer Leverkusen will be without Robbie Kruse for their Champions League clash against Atletico Madrid after the Australia winger suffered a fresh injury set-back in the Asian Cup final.

Kruse damaged the ligaments in his left ankle in the second-half of Australia’s 2-1 Asian Cup final win over South Korea in Sydney on Saturday.

Reports from Down Under suggest he will miss the next three to four months.

The 26-year-old is said to be devastated having worked his way back to fitness after tearing his cruciate knee ligament at the start of 2014 which saw him miss the entire second-half of last season.

Leverkusen host 2014 Champions League finalists Atletico in the first leg of their last 16 clash on February 25 with the return leg in Madrid on March 17.

Bayer hope to have an official diagnosis when Kruse returns to Germany from Australia.

“It’s a complex ligament injury with some damage,” Leverkusen spokesman Dirk Mesch told SID, an AFP subsidiary.

“The problem is that he is still residing in Australia and we would really like to diagnose the injury ourselves.

“It threatens to be a long injury lay-off.”