Elon Musk mysteriously wished him a “speedy recovery”

Elon Musk is something of a notorious workaholic so it’s unusual that he would pass up a chance at a potentially lucrative deal that could see Tesla enter the world’s third-largest car market.

Yet the entrepreneur was missing in action on Monday when India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, dispatched a senior member of his government in the midst of religious Diwali festivities to meet with the tycoon at his Fremont factory in California on Monday.

Why the Tesla CEO was a no-show is not exactly clear, but India’s minister of industry and commerce may have inadvertently let slip the cause.

“I wish him a speedy recovery,” Piyush Goyal posted to social media, adding he missed Musk’s “magnetic presence” during his tour of Tesla’s second-largest manufacturing plant.

Musk, who relayed his apologies and pledged to make it up to Modi’s minister, has complained of severe back pain in recent months in connection with his intense work schedule as he fights to save Twitter from bankruptcy.

In August, Musk revealed the need for “minor surgery” to correct a problem in which his right shoulder blade rubbed up against his rib cage.

“Recovery will only take a few months,” he wrote at the time.