It seems that the injury season for Barcelona is not looking to stop any time soon. Barça have already lost one of their finest young prodigies, Gavi, to a long-term injury due to an ACL problem for which he has had to go through surgery.
Moreover, many of their key players have been injured at one point or another during this campaign. Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Pedri, Frenkie De Jong, Ronald Araujo, Jules Kounde, and others have already had to go through some form of injury or unavailability.
The latest victim to injuries seemed to have been Marc Andre Ter Stegen. Barça’s number one between the sticks, as well as a captain, the German’s back problems, seem to be keeping him away from the action. Against Atletico Madrid, his presence continues to be in doubt.
However, as reported by Helena Condis, it would appear that another Barcelona player has now missed training. 32-year-old Spanish veteran Marcos Alonso is reportedly also suffering from some form of “minor discomfort”.
The left-back, formerly from Chelsea, will arguably not be as big a loss as Ter Stegen for the upcoming game. For now, it is not even clear if he will indefinitely miss the game or if he will be able to recover just in time.
In terms of input, Alonso has had a fairly slow start to the season. With only 4 appearances in La Liga, he has managed to accumulate only 160 minutes. From within his 4 appearances, he only managed to complete the 90 minutes against Villarreal.
Moreover, he has appeared only thrice in the UEFA Champions League, and ended no games from start to finish. Thus far, his accumulation of minutes in the European Cup amount to 139 minutes in total.
Xavi has displayed clearly his preferences of playing more dynamic fullbacks. Both Alejandro Balde and Joao Cancelo are seen as players that feature more reliably as a left-back than Alonso himself.
Consequently, recent reports have even suggested that the Spaniard could end up leaving Barcelona at the end of the season.
