Ousmane Dembélé’s Barcelona future is said to be in the hands of a surgeon as he undergoes a procedure today.
The Barca winger suffered yet another injury, the tenth since arriving in Catalonia on a deal worth more than €100million from Borussia Dortmund in 2017, during France’s Euro 2020 efforts.
Dembélé pucked up a knee injury during France’s final group stage game and he was released from the team’s camp soon after.
It has since been revealed that the Frenchman will have surgery on a knee injury today, in Finland, with Dr Lasse Lempainen carrying out the operation.
Lepainen also operated on the 24-year-old last year, and he now has the task of reviving Barcelona’s investment.
The injury puts Barca in a difficult place, with Sport claiming club president Joan Laporta saw Euro 2020 as an opportunity for Dembélé to get into the shop window ahead of a potential sale.
Barca are more than 40% over their wage bill and in around €1billion worth of debt, so they need high-profile sales this summer.
But the injury complicates that with no club likely to sign Dembélé on the back of an injury that has required surgery and during the four months he will likely to be out.
That means Barcelona likely won’t be able to sell Dembélé during the summer window, and his contract is up next summer, meaning the player can agree a pre-contract deal with a club outside Spain from January ahead of leaving for free.
So, for Barcelona, it’s now a case of hoping Dr Lepainen can work a miracle and achieve results good enough to show as definitive proof to prospective buyers that the winger will return to full fitness, despite his troubling injury history.
Otherwise, Barca will be faced with the unwanted choice of losing Dembélé for free or having to offer him a new contract in a time when they need big earners to leave the club.
