FC Barcelona has confirmed the injury suffered by its midfielder Pedri during Wednesday’s 4-2 win over Slavia Prague in the Champions League.
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FC Barcelona has confirmed the injury suffered by its midfielder Pedri during Wednesday’s 4-2 win over Slavia Prague in the Champions League, as well as his expected recovery time.
“The tests carried out this morning have confirmed that Pedri has suffered a muscle injury in the biceps femoris of his right leg, which he sustained during the match against Slavia Prague. The expected recovery time is one month,” a statement published on Thursday afternoon in Catalonia read.
The number eight went to ground around the hour mark in the Czech capital, as Barca was tied 2-2 and looked to have complicated its lot as per gaining automatic qualification to the knockout rounds.
Thankfully, at least from a results perspective, Pedri’s replacement Dani Olmo made an immediate impact and put his team ahead with a stunning strike.
Scoring at the right end this time, after tying on Slavia Prague’s behalf with an own goal before the interval, Robert Lewandowski then later struck to give Barca all three points and hopes of not having to contest a playoff in order to reach the next stage of the tournament.
Before the full time whistle had blown, reports already circled on the injury that Pedri had suffered, as well as an expected recovery time of three to four weeks.
Post-match, head coach Hansi Flick was tight-lipped on the matter and merely said: “I don’t know how he is, he has hamstring problems and he has to have tests,” and all this has proven to be true.
Which games will Pedri miss for FC Barcelona?
It goes without saying that Pedri is 100% ruled out of Sunday’s La Liga clash with Real Oviedo at the Spotify Camp Nou and next Wednesday’s must-win showdown against Copenhagen that will determine which foes FC Barcelona face in a potential playoff, last 16 or quarterfinal in the UCL.
Beyond that, however, providing he is out for the full four weeks, Pedri will additionally be sidelined for Elche away, Real Mallorca at home and Girona away.
Furthermore, it also can’t be ruled out that Barca might have to contest the first leg of a UCL playoff on February 17/18 with the second coming six or seven days later.
We can also perhaps cross out Levante at the Spotify Camp Nou around February 22, with Villarreal in the same venue on the weekend of February 28 a possible return date to the pitch.
How will FC Barcelona line up without Pedri?
Without Pedri, Flick has to decide whether he puts a more attacking Dani Olmo next to Frenkie de Jong in midfield as an undroppable Fermin Lopez is the CAM.
At the same time, the German could go more defensive and have someone like Marc Bernal, Marc Casado or Eric Garcia alongside the Dutchman as Olmo is out of the picture or stands in for Fermin.
We’ll see what the manager decides on first at the weekend, as FC Barcelona takes on Real Oviedo in his first home match for five weeks. But it must be noted that De Jong is suspended against Copenhagen, meaning we could see a completely new duo in that encounter.