The last season was a memorable one for Cules as FC Barcelona won the La Liga title after a number of years, and also won the Spanish Super Cup, defeating Real Madrid in the final.
Another piece of good news for the fans in the last season was the rapid rise of Alejandro Balde, who is now firmly established as Jordi Alba’s successor in the left-back position.
The player made 33 appearances in La Liga last season, another four appearances in the Champions League and two in the Europa League. In La Liga, he scored one goal, while providing six assists.
While Balde enjoyed a great season last year, the ending of the season was rather unfortunate as he got injured during the 2nd last league match of the season. The tackle from N’diaye resulted in a partial tear of the lateral ligament of the right ankle, which sidelined the player for five to seven weeks.
Now, while a significant period of time has passed since this injury, the player has still not fully recovered. Mundo Deportivo reports that the player started his pre-season with the club a week before Xavi had called the players, but was not able to take part in the initial training sessions as he is not yet fully ready to train with the rest of the team.
However, the player is seemingly on the path to full recovery, as the club has published a number of videos on their social media accounts in which the player can be seen playing with the ball.
This shows that the player is nearing his full recovery from injury, and would be ready in time for the first La Liga action of the 2023-24 season for Barcelona. Xavi and the club would be hoping that the injury has not negatively impacted any aspects of Balde’s game, and he can get straight back to action in the same form that he showed last season.