Barcelona: The club discovers that the injury to one of its key players is more serious than they had anticipated
Barcelona continues to grapple with injury issues affecting key players this season. Following a series of injuries to vital defensive players, the club now faces a new setback: an injury to one of its most important players and team leaders, the Dutchman Frenkie de Jong.
The young Dutchman has recovered from an injury that was expected to keep him sidelined until the end of the year; fortunately, however, everything progressed quickly, and the player has made a swift return to the pitch.
The player sustained a minor injury—a knock—during yesterday’s European match between Greece and the Netherlands. It has been confirmed that he will miss the Dutch national team’s next game, and he has already traveled back to Barcelona. Xavi Hernández has stated that the injury is nothing more than a slight knock.
Although Hernandez has offered his reassurances, the matter appears to be more significant from the perspective of the Catalan club.
The dilemma seemed even greater for the Catalan team
Barcelona's midfield maestro Frenkie de Jong has found himself at the center of fresh concerns during the international break, and the early signs suggest the club may have reason to worry more than initially expected.
The Dutch international, who had only recently returned from a lengthy spell on the sidelines, experienced discomfort while featuring for the Netherlands in their win over Greece. The Dutch football association moved swiftly to confirm that de Jong would play no part in the team's next fixture, and Xavi Hernandez publicly downplayed the issue, describing it as nothing more than a minor setback. Word from the camp suggested that sending him back to Barcelona was merely a precautionary measure.
But a new report from Diario AS paints a rather different picture. According to the Spanish outlet, the problem may run deeper than first believed. It wasn't simply back discomfort that de Jong was dealing with — the most intense pain he felt after the match was located in his pubis.
That detail changes everything. Pubalgia-related issues, as the cases of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams have demonstrated, are notoriously complex and can require considerable time to fully resolve. The report further suggests that the Dutch FA's unusually rapid public statement about de Jong's fitness may itself be a hint that the situation is more serious than anyone at Barcelona would like to admit.