Diego Costa has made a desperate bid to regain fitness for the Champions League final by flying to Serbia to visit a doctor who specialises in using horse placenta to treat muscle strains.

The Atletico Madrid striker limped off with a recurrence of a hamstring injury in the early stages of his team’s title-winning 1-1 draw against Barcelona last weekend, and his chances of recovering for Saturday’s meeting with Real Madrid are believed to be slim.

On Tuesday evening, however, he flew to Belgrade for a consultation with Marijana Kovacevic, who has earned the nickname of ‘the miracle doctor’ after successfully treating a number of stars including England international Frank Lampard.

Costa returned to Atletico’s training base on the outskirts of Madrid later on Wednesday night for the club’s medical staff to assess whether he has any chance of appearing in Lisbon.

One injured player whose chances of appearing in the final seem to be much greater is Arda Turan, who is continuing to respond to treatment on a hip injury sustained in a challenge from Cesc Fabregas.

Atletico’s preparations for the game continued without Costa and Turan on Wednesday, with manager Diego Simeone lining up Raul Garcia on the right wing and Adrian in attack in training.

They were the two players who replaced the injured stars in Barcelona, although other options are presented by attacking midfielders Diego Ribas and Jose Sosa.