When Xavi took charge of the FC Barcelona first team bench almost a year ago, one of his main obsessions was to stop the bleeding of injuries suffered by Barça’s first team. After completely changing the team’s medical services, including physical trainers, physiotherapists and recuperators, the situation seemed under control, until in a week the Blaugrana coach has seen how he lost up to seven players between national team matches, training sessions or the last match played . Thus, up to seven casualties in just one week at a delicate moment of the season.The schedule is rushing and without going any further, next week Barça will play a large part in staying alive in the Champions League in Wednesday’s match against Inter to then visit Real Madrid
Of the seven casualties that have shaken the Barcelona ecosystem, Xavi only has the prospect of recovering one player: Frenkie de Jong, who was injured in the first game of the Netherlands team and yesterday already trained with the rest of his teammates and aims to be ready to face Celta de Vigo after suffering an elongation in the semitendinosus of the left leg
That first day of the Nations League played between the last week and the previous one was disastrous for the plan that Xavi Hernández had drawn up and ruined the prevention work that since his arrival, with the exception of Pedri’s relapse, it had worked so well
The same day that De Jong fell, Koundé and Araújo also fell. The former is expected for the Clasico at the Bernabéu because in the end his injury was not as serious as expected and he is working overtime with a recovery man to fix a small fibrillar tear in the biceps femoris of his left thigh
Ronald Araújo suffered worse luck, who had to go through the operating room of Dr. Lasse Lampainen in Finland, a classic of recent times in the Barcelona team
An avulsion of the adductor longus tendon of the right thigh leaves the Uruguayan centre-back in danger of missing the World Cup and in any case he is not expected with Barcelona until next year
A similar case, but not as serious, affected Memphis Depay, who although it does not seem that he is going to miss the World Cup, it is very difficult for him to play for Blaugrana again before the appointment in Qatar. He has the same injury as Koundé (hamstring of the left thigh) but deeper, so his lower part is for at least a month
All of them were injured with their national teams, so the theory that things at Barcelona had changed and that the prediction of injuries was correct was maintained, but that feeling went to ground with Bellerin’s injury, which he noticed inconveniences in an almost family training in the Ciutat Esportiva and will be out for three to four weeks
Finally, came the match against Inter where Christensen and Kessie fell for various reasons. The Danish center-back has a grade two sprain in his left ankle after the entry of a rival player, while the Ivory Coast midfielder finished the game with an elongation in the adductor of his right thigh despite the fact that it came into play in the 80th minute of the match
It may be bad luck or that the revolution that Xavi intended to make in medical services was not as simple as he thought
