Barcelona announce major injury setback

Barcelona have announced that they will be without winger Ansu Fati for approximately four weeks due to a significant injury for the 22-year-old.

Ansu has featured seven times for Hansi Flick’s side this season – all but one as a substitute – and has yet to get off the mark in terms of goals and assists.

He was building up a head of steam after missing the opening weeks of the season because of a foot problem sustained in pre-season, but now Barcelona have announced that he has broken down once more.

A statement released by the club on X states: “Ansu Fati suffered a right hamstring injury at training on Wednesday morning. He will be out for approximately four weeks.”

This means that the 22-year-old is primed to miss a busy period of six games, despite the international break.

Ansu will sit out LaLiga matches against Celta, Las Palmas, Mallorca and Real Betis, while in the Champions League, he will definitely miss out against surprise-package Brest and potentially against Borussia Dortmund on 11 December.

Ansu Fati’s injury record

Ansu was hailed as being Lionel Messi’s heir when he exploded into the Barcelona team as a teenager, with the winger making a similar instant impact that Lamine Yamal managed.

However, he has spent the last four years plagued by injury problems following knee surgery in 2020 for a meniscus tear that kept him sidelined for what was effectively a whole year.

Subsequent hamstring problems then wrote off a huge part of the 2022/23 campaign, with the player rushed back into significant action too quickly following an initial recovery from the injury.

After failing to find his best level, he was loaned out to Brighton, where he missed 10 weeks because of a calf problem, then he was struck by the foot problem that kept him out for two months in the summer.

Should Ansu miss out for a month, it will be the fifth time in his career that he has spent 30 days or more on the sidelines because of injury.

His Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) has fallen to €19.4 million as a result, having peaked at close to €42m when he first broke through at Barcelona.