Injuries have hampered Barcelona throughout this season, save for a brief reprieve during February and March. In April, those problems came back with a vengeance.
Beforehand Xavi Hernandez would have had the usual excuse of not having been able to work with the players for long. Yet with the injuries back for the final stages of the season, Gerard Pique, Sergio Dest have both struggled to overcome muscular problems.
That only covers a small part of the injury issues however. Speaking ahead of Barcelona’s match with Real Mallorca, Sport covered Xavi’s press conference in which the Barcelona manager tried to explain all of the injury problems in detail.
“Pedri injured himself in a match. Unfortunately for several weeks. He is feeling good and doing work on his own. Pique has beend ealing with his tendon for 2 or 3 months. Today he didn’t train, he started with the group. Today he was in more pain.”
“Roberto isn’t a relapse. The stitches are fine. It’s a muscular issue, nothing more. Nico broke his toe yesterday in a collision with Ansu during a match. It’s a shame because we need everyone. We aren’t blessed with a lot of central midfielders, but that’s football.”
“Then Oscar and Martin with Covid. Ousmane woke up with tonsilitis, we will tomorrow, he is crucial. Yesterday Sevilla slipped up, a direct rival. We have to be in the Champions League next year.”
On the plus side for Xavi, he was able to confirm that Ansu Fati would be back in the squad tomorrow, after being absent since January. There’s also a chance that Samuel Umtiti is declared fit too. Barcelona are six points clear of Real Betis in fifth place, but another home defeat to Mallorca would send alarm bells ringing at Camp Nou.
