ATLANTA — Injuries happen. We know that. That is one of the fundamental rules of sports, one that hasn’t changed from the beginning of time. Injuries are one of the hurdles you have to negotiate if you’re going to survive a 162-game season.

Heck, even the Braves, for whom this season has mostly been a splendid joyride, found that out the hard way when Ronald Acuna Jr.’s foot hit the first-base bag at Fenway Park on Sunday afternoon, twisting his leg in a way that legs were never meant to be twisted. Monday the Braves placed Acuna, one of the game’s magnificent young talents, on the disabled list, and we’ll see how long they’ll be without him.

Teams don’t hide behind injuries, because hiding behind injuries is the language of losers. Terry Collins lost Yoenis Cespedes and Noah Syndergaard within days of each other last year, and in his heart he had to know that spelled the end of the competitive portion of the Mets’ schedule and his own career as a field manager.

Nevertheless, he wouldn’t gripe about the injuries.

“They expect me to do my job whether or not I’m particularly happy with the twists and turns of fate,” he said last June, by which point his team was already playing out the string. “Nobody wants to hear a manager complain about the team he’s managing. All 25 guys on this roster are paid to play ball. That’s the deal.”

That’s the deal.

But so is this:

These are the names that have already appeared (and, in many cases, still appear) on the 10- and 60-day disabled lists for the Mets in 2018, alphabetically for easier access:

Yoenis Cespedes.

Michael Conforto.

Travis d’Arnaud.

Jacob deGrom.

Wilmer Flores.

Todd Frazier.

Juan Lagares.

Kevin Plawecki.

AJ Ramos.

T.J. Rivera.

Hansel Robles.

Dom Smith.

Anthony Swarzak.

Noah Syndergaard.

Jason Vargas.

David Wright.

And that’s with the season still three games shy of the one-third mark, entering Tuesday night’s game between the Mets and the Braves at soggy, sauna-y SunTrust Park.

Syndergaard is, of course, the latest concern, landing on the 10-day list Tuesday after an MRI exam of the index finger of his pitching hand revealed a strain he likely could have pitched through if it were late September but would’ve been foolish to test in late May.

The Mets hope he will miss one start. There is some reason to actually believe this is a reasonable goal and not some pie-in-the-sky Mets optimism, because that’s the same recovery time that was prescribed for deGrom when he banged up his elbow a few weeks ago, and he’s returned better than ever.

Still …

At a time of the season when the Mets can ill afford to take another body blow, they take another body blow. The resulting dominoes are concerning: Vargas, everyone’s favorite pitching piñata, is going to go on short rest Wednesday (which probably will make it hard for Braves hitters to sleep Tuesday night as they impatiently wait for his buffet table of tasty curveballs and “fast”balls).

Into the rotation for now, or at least for Thursday back home against the Cubs for four innings or 65 pitches, is Seth Lugo,

the goat of Monday’s Memorial Day opener

, but till then, the Mets’ most reliable and dependable arm in the bullpen. That means the bullpen, which by and large has been anything but reliable and dependable, takes a hit, at least until Swarzak’s 60 days on the DL are up and he can return.

For now (and, seemingly, as always) there is Cespedes, still the one component the Mets can least afford to miss yet the one who is forever hobbled or recovering or invisible, who is said to be making strides but is still almost certainly a full week or more away from coming back.

Injuries happen. They happen to everyone. They happen to good teams and bad teams, jinxed teams and teams who seem to be living under a good star. You can learn to accept the reality of them.

And still rage at the regularity of them.

Both are allowed.