Barcelona concerned about the number of muscle injuries affecting players – report

After tasting success in the form of La Liga and Spanish Super Cup titles last season, FC Barcelona have had a tough time emulating those results this time around.

The Blaugrana lost the Spanish Super Cup to Real Madrid, have been eliminated from the Copa del Rey, and are currently third in La Liga, eight points off leaders Girona.

The form of the entire team, in general, has not been up to the mark this season, but along with that the reigning Spanish champions have also been hampered by a plethora of injury problems over the course of the campaign.

Barcelona growing concerned about the muscle injuries

Now, SPORT’s Xavi Espinosa is reporting that Barcelona are growing concerned about the number of injuries, especially the muscle problems, affecting their players this season.

With the second half of the campaign just getting started, Barça have already had as many as 16 injuries during 2023/24, with the latest one coming in the form of Alejandro Balde’s hamstring issue that is set to rule him out for the rest of the season.

Balde will join the likes of Gavi, Inigo Martinez, Raphinha, Marcos Alonso, and Marc-Andre ter Stegen on the sidelines, although the latter is inching closer to his return.

The latest Barcelona star to be injured. (Photo by PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images)

The injuries have become a problem for Barça that does not seem to have a solution in the short term, which points directly to the physical preparation of the players and the warm-up dynamics in the run-up to the games.

As mentioned earlier, Barcelona have suffered a total of 16 serious injuries this season and nine of them have been muscular. The most common injury for Xavi’s men this season has been that of the biceps femoris.

While injuries in football are commonplace, the amount of muscle problems that have bothered Barça might suggest there may be other factors at play.

A different report from AS suggests that Xavi’s training sessions have been under discussion for some time now.

There are voices within the club that criticise the low intensity of the training sessions and a few days ago the number of rest days that the coach gave his players was also discussed.