Luis Suarez injury is a blow to Uruguay’s Copa America hopes

Luis Suarez’s participation in next month’s Copa America Centenario was called into question Monday when the Uruguyan striker was diagnosed with a hamstring injury after limping off the field in the second half of Barcelona’s win over Sevilla in Spain’s Copa del Rey final Sunday.

Suarez, who led Europe with 59 goals in all competitions this season, limped off in the second half of Sunday’s game and could be seen crying on the Barcelona bench.

Tests on Monday confirmed “an injury to the semimembranosus muscle in the right leg,” Barcelona said. The semimembranosus muscle in the back of the thigh is the most medial, or central, of the three hamstring muscles and runs from the pelvis to the back of the tibia. It has several functions, among them enabling the leg to flex and rotate and serving as a thigh extensor.

Suarez will join his national team in the U.S. next week to continue his rehabilitation but the injury is considered serious enough to keep him out of Uruguay’s Copa opener with Mexico on June 5 in Glendale, Ariz. -- and may keep him out of the tournament all together.

That would be a huge blow to Uruguay, which was expected to contend for the tournament title, and a huge boost for Mexico, which suddenly becomes the favorite in Group B. The group also includes Jamaica and Venezuela.

Uruguay is expected to turn to Bordeaux’s Diego Rolan or Hull City’s Abel Hernandez in Suarez’s absence. But neither will give the team the explosiveness it had up front with the pairing of Suarez and Paris Saint-Germain’s Edinson Cavani.