Italy coach Antonio Conte insists he will have a plan B should Daniele De Rossi not recover in time to face Germany on Saturday.
The Roma midfielder limped out of Italy's 2-0 win over Spain in the second round of the European Championship on Monday, while his replacement Thiago Motta -- the only similar player Conte has in his 23-man squad -- picked up a second yellow card of the tournament and will be suspended for Saturday's quarterfinal in Bordeaux.
With Antonio Candreva also currently sidelined, Conte may have a selection headache for his side's "next final" against the Germans.
"As far as De Rossi is concerned, we'll evaluate that in the next few hours or tomorrow," Conte said at his post-match news conference in Saint-Denis. "I can't say what the chances are of him recovering. We're playing on Saturday and today is Monday so we've got four days to get him back.
"I want my players to be 100 percent fit though, because we need to be 120, 130 percent fit against Germany. So I'll evaluate things these days and find other solutions.
"We'll try to find an alternative to the possibility of being without De Rossi, although I hope this doesn't happen."
Conte allowed his players just one night to enjoy their achievement before turning their attention to a Germany game which he says is going to be even harder.
"We certainly have the disadvantage of a day less to prepare because Germany played yesterday, but just let us enjoy this achievement until tomorrow morning, because it was a job with a lot of hard work behind it," Conte said.
FT- #ITA are in the quarter-finals against #GER thanks to a brilliant and deserved 2-0 win over #ESP!!#ItalySpain pic.twitter.com/ZOK206uqY0
- Italy (@azzurri) June 27, 2016
"Tomorrow we think of Germany and we're going to need a titanic effort. They beat us 4-1 in March and I remember that belief in us had dropped very, very low after that game. We're trying to regain that self-confidence.
"Like I say, for me Germany are on a higher level to everybody. So we're going to have to regain our strength and prepare it well, with the same attention, desire and determination, because we're going to need something super-extraordinary for that game, not just extraordinary."