After facing a very serious injury crisis in the last month or so, FC Barcelona have now started recovering players for the upcoming key part of the season. Xavi was able to put Inigo Martinez on the pitch in the game against Alaves, while Ter Stegen and Raphinha returned to action in the match against Granada.
Now, Sergi Roberto and Oriol Romeu are the two players waiting for medical permission to travel with the team for the upcoming game against Celta de Vigo. With these recoveries, the Catalans will now be waiting for Marcos Alonso, Ferran Torres, and Joao Felix to return to action in the coming weeks.
But according to SPORT, none of these players is expected to return for the first leg against Napoli, even though Felix was initially believed to be in contention to recover for this game.
The Portuguese forward has been unable to step on the pitch since he suffered a sprain in the external lateral ligament of his right ankle while training on 30th January. While the club did not specify it, he was reported to be out for a period of three to four weeks.
Barcelona face Napoli in three weeks after Felix’s injury, so if the winger recovered at the earliest possible time, he would have been available for this game. However, the coaching staff is not too optimistic about his ability to return for this game.
However, everything will now depend on how the player evolves in the coming days. As things stand, the coaching staff expects him to be available for the match against Athletic Club on 3rd March.
With this injury, Felix has missed three games, against Osasuna, Alaves, and Granada. But the winger had already lost his starting position to Ferran Torres before this setback. Since the latter is also out with an injury now, Xavi will definitely be looking to recover the on-loan winger as soon as possible.
