ROME: Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s injury-hit season could be at an end after AC Milan said on Saturday that the Sweden international has picked up a knock to his right calf.

Milan did not specify for how long Ibrahimovic would be out but said that there a “small hope” that he could play before the end of the season, which in Italy finishes on the first weekend in June.

The veteran striker picked up the injury during the warm-up before Milan’s 2-0 win over Lecce last weekend.

Ibrahimovic, a key figure in Milan’s resurgence to the top of Italian football, has hardly featured for Stefano Pioli’s side all season, returning in February following surgery on his left knee in May.

The 41-year-old has only started one match for Milan all season, in a 3-1 win at Udinese in March in which he became the oldest goalscorer in Serie A history.

He isn’t on the list of players eligible for Milan’s Champions League campaign so he will not feature in the derby semi-final with Inter Milan next month.

Ibrahimovic’s latest injury casts doubt over whether he will retire at the end of the season, with his contract expiring in June and no news regarding an extension.