Frenkie de Jong was one of the few Barcelona first teamers to return for the start of pre-season on Wednesday, although he did not join the group for their first sessions on Thursday. He’s still recovering the from the ankle injury suffered against Real Madrid in April, which also forced him to miss out on playing at Euro 2024.
Barcelona will monitor de Jong’s condition over the new week or so, and if his ankle does not improve, there’s a chance that surgery is required. For now, that option is discarded, but he’s still not close to returning to action for the Catalan giants.
As reported by Achraf Ben Ayad, de Jong is not projected to return to group training for another 3-4 weeks. Should this be the case, he’d be doubtful for Barcelona’s first match of the 2024-25 La Liga season, against Valencia at the Mestalla.
🚨🚨🚨 حصريا : فرينكي مازال بعيدا عن الجاهزية ، قد يحتاج ثلاثة او اربعة اسابيع للعمل مع المجموعة 🚨🚨🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/7cN9SQCuzu
— Achraf Ben Ayad (@Benayadachraf) July 11, 2024
If de Jong does not recover in time to face Valencia, Hansi Flick will have a big problem in midfield. Currently, Ilkay Gundogan and Oriol Romeu are the only senior midfield options that Barcelona will have available against Los Che, with Pedri (injured) and Fermin Lopez (Olympics duty) not available. However, Marc Casado is an option to play in the pivot positions, while Andreas Christensen can do so too, as he did last season.
