Celta rationed him. Sweden didn't.

Celta spent the opening weeks of 2026-27 managing Carl Starfelt with care. The Swedish centre-back missed the end of last season with a disc hernia, skipped surgery, went to the World Cup and had a short pre-season. Claudio Giráldez gave him three Liga appearances, two of them starts, for 218 minutes and one goal, plus the full 90 against Omonia in Celta's first European tie.

Sweden didn't ration him. He had made three straight Nations League starts. Against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Solna (1–1), he grabbed the back of his right thigh in the 31st minute and asked off. Graham Potter said it "didn't look good." Celta's scan on 5 October found a semimembranosus tear with proximal tendon involvement, and the club puts the absence at about six weeks.

The graph: the man Celta rotated with Starfelt was Sebastián Cáceres. Cáceres also came home early, with pubalgia from Uruguay's camp, and did part of Tuesday's session with the group. Rationing was the plan for one centre-back. Now one is out for six weeks and the other is working his way back, with Elche up first (Sun 11 Oct, 14:00 CEST).

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— Jet Callen / THE GRAPHS