Barcelona midfield prodigy Marc Bernal has had a difficult couple of days. He was flying high since pre-season due to his performances in the senior team and looked destined to become the club’s next Golden Boy.
As fate may have it, the 17-year-old ruptured his ACL and damaged his meniscus in the game against Rayo Vallecano midweek. This means that Bernal will miss one year of footballing action at the very least.
It’s a shame that Hansi Flick cannot call upon Bernal going forward this season considering how good he has been. Barcelona were finally stopping to miss Sergio Busquets and yet, they are now back to square one.
Bernal will now need to go under the knife to reconstruct his ACL. As per reporter Achraf Ben Ayad on X (formerly Twitter), the 17-year-old will undergo surgery next week and the operation will take place in Barcelona. Here is what he had to say:
“Bernal will initially undergo surgery next week, the operation will take place in Barcelona”
Everyone is hoping that this procedure on Bernal goes as per plan without any hiccups as that is very crucial to his recovery. We have all seen what happens when a procedure doesn’t go as planned with Ansu Fati.
It is going to be a long road to recovery for Bernal and right now, all he can do is sit tight and not lose confidence. As a 17-year-old, it could be daunting, both physically and emotionally to go through this.
In the absence of Bernal, Flick will be forced to innovate going forward. The club is right back to where it was last season with no positional pivot to rely on. One option could be turning to Pau Prim of the reserve team.
With Andreas Christensen and Eric Garcia, two players who can play in that position also injured, Marc Casado looks to have the best chance of playing in that role in the next few weeks. Let’s see how Flick decides to go about solving this crisis.
