Barcelona expect to welcome Ronald Araujo back in the next 24 hours. The defender has been with Uruguay at Copa America, but with their involvement having ended in the early hours of Sunday morning, he will now return to Catalonia to undergo tests on the hamstring injury he suffered last weekend.
Barça take Dani Rodríguez' renewal for granted. @gbsans
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Uruguay doctors were unable to get a proper read on how serious Araujo’s injury is due to inflammation in the hamstring area, so Barcelona will hope for a clear picture once they run their own medical examinations.
Initial reports say that Araujo could be out for two months, meaning that he’d miss the opening few matchdays of the 2024-25 La Liga season. There’s also a possibility that he is banned for those matches anyway, as a result of his involvement in the crowd trouble after Uruguay’s semi-final defeat to Colombia earlier this week. Diario AS say that Barcelona fear the 25-year-old being banned by FIFA, who could intervene in the matter.
For now, it is CONMEBOL that are reviewing the incident, and if it stays that way, Araujo would only be banned for international matches. Barcelona will hope that is the worst possible outcome, meaning that he would miss none of their fixtures because of a suspension.
