Injuries Becoming a Nightmare For Barcelona

The international break has turned out to be a treacherous one for Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez as he watches one after another of his stars struck down with injury problems.

Until now, Sergi Roberto’s relatively minor complaints had been the Blaugrana’s only medical issues this season. However, over the past few days, the treatment room has been filling up.

The timing couldn’t be worse, either, with October set to be a hectic month packed full of massive fixtures.

Games against Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Athletic Club, Villarreal, Inter , Valencia and more are all on the menu when club football returns.

Two games per week for the foreseeable and some very tricky fixtures which could go a long way to defining the Catalan club’s season.

Xavi would have liked to be going into this run with a full squad to rotate and use.

It is all the more frustrating for Xavi because cutting down on the number of injuries was one of his aims when he took the job. It had been going quite well, now less so.

The bad news started to arrive on Thursday and it came from the French and Dutch camps. Ousmane Dembele, Jules Kounde, Memphis Depay and Frenkie De Jong were all concerns.

The latter three, along with Uruguay’s Ronald Araujo all returned to Barcelona ahead of schedule for checks and treatment.

Araujo will require surgery and fears persist that he could miss the World Cup.

Memphis and De Jong, meanwhile, have been confirmed to have picked up hamstring injuries, with no timescale set for their return.

Kounde also has a hamstring problem and is expected to be out for several weeks.

This will force a major reshuffle in Xavi’s back four as he has lost two of his first-choice defenders.

Bellerin the Latest Problem

The latest bad news, and further bad news in the defensive department, comes from closer to home and it’s that Hector Bellerin pulled up in training at the club’s training complex with a calf complaint.

The former Arsenal full back will undergo further tests on Wednesday.

With Bellerin and Kounde potentially out, it remains to be seen whether Sergi Roberto will have recovered in time for the upcoming games against Mallorca and Inter.

Dembele Wrapped in Cotton Wool

After his injury scare, Barcelona will be taking precautions with Dembele.

He will only play against Mallorca if the medical staff feel he is fully ready, otherwise Xavi won’t risk him ahead of so many big games.

This article was originally published on Marca.