Xavi’s Planned Date For Ansu Fati’s FC Barcelona Comeback

Xavi Hernandez and his staff have already planned what they believe is the perfect moment for Ansu Fati to make his comeback to the FC Barcelona first team.

The 19-year-old has been out for the past 80-plus days with a hamstring injury, but is readying a return to action towards the close of the season.

On Monday at his book launch in the Catalan capital, the youngster said he was “really looking forward” to returning to the first XI “because the team has improved a lot”.

“The team is playing very well. I hope that I can be with the team soon,” the boy wonder who has inherited the number ’10’ jersey from Lionel Messi added.

At that same event, president Joan Laporta stressed that a debt-ridden Barca do not need to sign a ‘crack’ in the likes of Erling Haaland because they have Fati. But what was more interesting is that Laporta urged him not to rush his comeback.

Perhaps guilty of throwing the youngster back into action too soon for the Spanish Super Cup in January, when he picked up his latest knock just 10 days after becoming available from another hamstring niggle that had left him sidelined for two months, Xavi stressed at his prematch press conference ahead of the Catalans’ Europa League quarter-final second leg meeting with Eintracht Frankfurt that Fati can take things at his own pace.

“Today he has done a good training [session]: the sprints, the shot. It is a matter of sensations. It’s [a case of] when he says ‘I’m ready’. He feels like a footballer again and that’s the most important thing. When he tells us he’s ready, [he’ll come back],” Xavi revealed.

According to Mundo Deportivo on Thursday, however, Xavi and his staff have the perfect date in mind for Fati to once more lace up his boots.

Rather than prepare him for Monday’s meeting with Cadiz in La Liga, a more suitable time is viewed as being around a potential Europa League semi-final first leg on April 28 against either West Ham or Lyon should they see off Frankfurt this evening.

Should Barca fail to advance, however, Fati’s re-emergence could be put back to May 1 when the Blaugrana face Mallorca in La Liga or brought forward to the postponed date with Rayo Vallecano on April 24 with both fixtures being played at Camp Nou certain to see Fati receive the standing ovation he deserves when coming off the bench.