On Wednesday, Barcelona confirmed that Sergi Roberto had suffered a calf strain during training. Although no return date was set by the club, it was thought that the problem was very minor, and would only keep him out of action for 7-10 days.
That would have seen Roberto miss Sunday’s match with Athletic Club, although there was a strong chance that he would return ahead of the games against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League and Real Madrid in La Liga.
However, Sport now say that Roberto will now miss the next two to three weeks with the injury, meaning that he will also miss these matches.
Although Roberto is far from a regular starter for Barcelona, he is a solid squad option for head coach Xavi Hernandez, who would have hoped to rest Joao Cancelo ahead of the showdown with Real Madrid. Roberto’s injury could now put pay to that.
Roberto’s injury also leaves Barcelona very short in midfield. With Pedri, who has an outside chance of being back for El Clasico, and Frenkie de Jong already out, it leaves just Oriol Romeu, Ilkay Gundogan, Fermin Lopez and Gavi as options, with the latter also banned for the Shakhtar match.