Before Barcelona’s Champions League quarter-final tie against Borussia Dortmund last season, the club’s senior executives held an off-the-record briefing with reporters.
Among a wide range of topics discussed, boardroom members spoke about the consequences of not playing in the summer’s revamped Club World Cup in the United States.
The prospect of missing out on prize money — with a potential $125million (£97m) available to the winner — was significant given Barca’s continued financial problems. But they also agreed that missing the tournament could be good news for coach Hansi Flick.
“It is a kind of blessing for the players because they will have a proper break to rest this summer,” one executive said. “We don’t know how the teams that are taking part in the competition will cope with that because next season starts straight away and players will most likely break down with injuries.”
Two months into the season, it is defending Spanish champions Barca who find themselves enduring a significant injury crisis in the build-up to El Clasico against Real Madrid on October 26.
Striker Robert Lewandowski was the latest to join the injury list on Tuesday. The Poland international suffered a hamstring tear this week that will keep him sidelined for a month, according to club sources. That means he is expected to miss the game against Madrid at the Bernabeu.
Lewandowski is expected to miss the first Clasico of the season (Diego Souto/Getty Images)
Over the past week, Dani Olmo and Ferran Torres have left international duty with Spain due to muscular problems. Olmo has a calf injury, which makes him a serious doubt for the Clasico, while Torres might be fit to play this weekend against Girona.
Raphinha picked up a hamstring injury on the same day goalkeeper Joan Garcia tore his meniscus in a 3-1 win at Real Oviedo. Before that, Fermin Lopez had been sidelined with a groin problem and Gavi underwent knee surgery, ruling the 21-year-old midfielder out for the next four to five months. He had only just returned from a lengthy lay-off with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.
There is the well-documented case of Lamine Yamal, too. Barca’s 18-year-old star forward returned from last month’s international break with Spain with a groin injury that has persisted. His initial injury led to an angry reaction from Flick, who was not happy with how Spain had managed the teenager’s playing time. Yamal was unable to join up with Spain this month due to his injury, but did return to normal training with Barca on Monday.
Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen can also be added to the long-term list, following the back surgery he underwent at the end of July.
That makes nine injured players — seven of whom feature significantly in Flick’s plans — which nobody at Barca would have expected before the start of the campaign.
Dressing-room sources — who, like all those cited in this article, asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships — are perplexed as to how Barca reached this point. They enjoyed a full pre-season, going on tour to South Korea and Japan in place of the Club World Cup.
Voices on the coaching staff also believe they have given the appropriate amount of rest to players when they have needed it this season to avoid injuries.
Many of the above injuries have been labelled as bad luck. Gavi and Garcia tearing their meniscus are seen as unfortunate injuries that would have been difficult to prevent.
Yamal was injured while away with Spain last month (Nikolay Doychinov/AFP via Getty Images)
The muscular problems are a different story, though. While it is hard to identify the true causes of these injuries, dressing-room sources admit that Barca’s 22-man squad is not a big one, with players from the club’s La Masia youth academy travelling with the team each week.
That is not seen as a bad thing — it is a choice made by the club to keep every player involved, making it easier to manage the squad. “But as soon as you have some of those players injured, the options to rotate and give rest to players are smaller, and therefore the chances of suffering new injuries bigger,” one voice on the backroom staff said.
Another theory is linked to the team’s results this season. At this stage last season, Barca were four points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga. The team were so clinical that they quickly found themselves in comfortable positions and were then able to manage matches and players’ efforts from there. “In some games, it was like we trained during matches,” a dressing room source said of Barca’s physical form last term.
In contrast, they now trail Madrid by two points at the top of La Liga, with comebacks needed to win against Levante, Oviedo and Real Sociedad. They have drawn with Rayo Vallecano and been beaten by Paris Saint-Germain and Sevilla — games in which they had little breathing space and could not take it easy at any point.
The positive news for Barca fans is that three players may be available for selection as soon as this weekend. Yamal, Fermin and Torres should be fit enough to be included in the matchday squad against Girona.
But Raphinha is still on the mend, Olmo and Garcia’s chances of making the Clasico at the Bernabeu are slim, and Lewandowski is definitely ruled out for that match.
Two weeks ago, Pedri and Pau Cubarsi blamed Barca’s 4-1 defeat by Sevilla on a lack of intensity. Flick was expected to tackle that straight after the international break — he must now do it with a significantly weakened squad during a key stretch of the season.
