FC Barcelona: Xavi responds to the Pedri controversy

The images moved FC Barcelona supporters. Pedri’s tears during his exit in the first half against Athletic last weekend (0-0) did not bode well. Barça’s press release a few hours later confirmed the concerns without saying more, except that it was a new muscle injury. “Pedri suffers from an injury to the rectus femoris muscle in his right thigh. He is unavailable and the duration of his absence will depend on his progress.

Yet another glitch for the 21-year-old midfielder, as talented as he is fragile. Subjected to a frantic pace of matches at a very young age (remember his first real season in 2020/2021 with the professionals at the age of 18 where he played 73 matches!), he seems to be paying the price now. Reality catches up with him too often. In this exercise alone, he missed 19 matches due to muscular problems, or 129 days of competition according to the team’s history. Transfermarkt.

Xavi optimistic for Pedri

FC Barcelona, ​​but also its coach Xavi, are accused of having made him play too much, and too soon. Especially since he quickly became a Spanish international, adding an additional burden. The Barcelona technician defended himself at a press conference. “It’s not the first time that this has happened to him, that at the start of his career he had a lot of injuries, and then he didn’t get injured anymore. It’s not easy to deal with pressure at such a young age. I told him to be positive, to think it’s the last time and to recover well.”

Another element of response, the one who will leave his post at the end of the season gave good news from the native of the Canary Islands. “What we are trying to do is prevent injuries, I think we have done an impeccable job, especially with Pedri. It’s not as bad as we thought. I’m sure he’ll come back.”, assures Xavi, relieved to be able to recover the midfielder more quickly than expected. When ? This still remains a mystery that the coach did not wish to clarify.