The sight of Pedri leaving the pitch in tears during Sunday’s 0-0 draw at Athletic Bilbao brought familiar worries to Barcelona fans’ minds.
Pedri has now suffered several muscle injuries since his 2020-21 breakout season.
During that campaign, he played 73 games for club and country. Since it ended, the 21-year-old Spaniard has been forced to miss 75 matches. In 2021-22, he featured in only 22 fixtures for Barca. A year later he managed 35 appearances. This season the midfielder has only been fit enough to play 24 times — and there is some doubt over whether we will see him again before 2024-25 kicks off in August.
Pedri has said “we won’t know” to what extent his injury troubles can be traced back to competing in such a remarkably high number of games in his debut campaign as a professional (and then only resting for two weeks having helped Spain to the European Championship semi-finals that summer before beginning the following season).
However, according to medical experts consulted by The Athletic, there is a clear connection between fatigue and his muscle injuries.
Pedri’s is a particularly striking case, but the truth is that Barcelona have seen many of their young talents suffer serious injuries in the past few years — and wider concerns have been building for some time.
This article also details:
- Recent worries, from both players and within the club, that physical training is being overlooked at Barca — a view rejected by technical staff
- How some first-team members have employed outside professionals to help with further physical preparation
- The club’s caution over Pedri’s latest injury — but how the player felt they rushed him back last season
- Coaches’ preference for young talents, such as Lamine Yamal, to be “protected” — but how that is complicated by a lack of squad depth, and with Barcelona unable to operate in the transfer market
- An expert medical figure who believes the club are “burning through” young players, and that their “football-centred” training model risks being outdated in the modern game
The first was Ansu Fati.
In August 2019, Fati made his Barcelona debut at the age of 16 years, nine months and 25 days. Over the year and a half that followed he delighted fans with his thrilling talent on the ball. Then he suffered a bad injury.
On November 7, 2020, Barca were playing Real Betis. In a challenge with defender Aissa Mandi, Fati ruptured the inner meniscus in his left knee.
He underwent surgery, an operation that consisted of trying to keep the meniscus intact. He spent 10 days at the clinic of Dr Ramon Cugat, an internationally renowned expert in orthopaedic surgery who had worked with several former Barca players, doing one recovery session a day.
Once back at the club, it transpired that Fati was doing one more recovery session than Dr Cugat’s rehabilitation programme asked for. His repaired knee became inflamed and, eventually, three further surgeries were required. As The Athletic has previously reported, former employees at Barca who were responsible for Fati’s recovery did not respond when approached for comment.
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Fati’s return to first-team action was initially scheduled for the spring of 2021 but didn’t happen until September that year, and injury problems have continued to hamper him.
Two months after his comeback, he suffered a hamstring problem, and in January 2022 there was a recurrence. On loan at Brighton & Hove Albion this season, he injured his hamstring again in November and only returned to action early last month, with recent performances far from impressive.
Fati has been on loan at Brighton this season (James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Then there is Pedri.
Having struggled with muscle problems since a hamstring injury suffered in August 2021, Pedri’s team decided to take precautionary measures this pre-season, after a quadriceps (thigh) problem reduced his playing time last term. Before joining up with team-mates, he worked with a personal trainer on a specific plan designed to help him gain more strength and to prevent further issues in that area of his body.
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Everything started well. Pedri even scored a crucial goal against Cadiz in Barcelona’s second match of the new season back in August. But three days later, he suffered a new quadriceps tear in training. The mental blow and frustration prompted further caution in the Pedri camp — and old tensions with the club resurfaced.
Last season, when Pedri was ruled out with a hamstring injury, the club wanted him back for a trip to face Real Madrid in the first leg of a Copa del Rey semi-final on March 2. He ended up suffering a setback that kept him on the sidelines for an extra month — eventually returning on April 23.
Pedri’s entourage believed Barcelona rushed his recovery. That was partly why, after suffering an injury in August, Pedri and his camp decided to seek a second opinion on his recovery plan — an opinion external to the club’s medical department.
Barcelona did not wish to comment on the suggestion Pedri was rushed back. But sources familiar with the situation — who, like all those cited in this article, asked to speak anonymously to protect their position — said the move to look for further advice elsewhere was not liked within the club.
Before the start of this season, Pedri also said he had turned to a gluten-free diet and started practising pilates. But still, he suffered another setback on Sunday.
Pedri’s latest absence follows the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury suffered by Gavi when on Spain duty in November. That came as a huge blow for the club, with the player ruled out for the rest of the season, including this summer’s European Championship.
At the time of his injury, no other Barca player had played more than Gavi’s 131 matches for club and country since his senior debut in August 2021 (104 for Barcelona; 27 for Spain).
Like Gavi, left, Alejandro Balde, right, has also been ruled out for the season (Pedro Salado/Getty Images)
Between those two dates — August 2021 and last November — Gavi was also the most-used player aged under 20 in Europe’s top five leagues, playing 5,791 minutes. And no other Spain player had featured in as many as his 27 games since his international debut in October 2021, when he became his country’s youngest player — a record since surpassed by his 16-year-old Barca team-mate Yamal.
Gavi’s desire and commitment have played a crucial role on the pitch for Barca. Before suffering his injury, he was the third-most-used player in the team this season. Manager Xavi called him the side’s “heart with legs”. But now they are without him.
Spanish national team manager Luis de la Fuente said Gavi was “perfectly ready to play” in the Euro 2024 qualifier against Georgia in which he was injured. He said the injury “might have happened in a La Liga match, in training or in any situation”, adding: “It was an accident, a misfortune.”
For many fans, Gavi’s injury had obvious parallels with Pedri’s troubles (in terms of a potential overload on his body from playing so much football so young). However, this is not a view shared by Dr Miquel Llobet, an orthopaedic surgeon specialising in knee injuries.
He says Gavi’s injury with Spain “had nothing to do with physical preparation, it was an incident in the game”.
Barca closely monitor the physical condition of all their players, with rigorous controls, analyses and daily tests that take in a variety of data. Fatigue indicators are highlighted to let Xavi know which of them are most likely to get injured if they play in the next game.
But various sources, both within the club and close to first-team players, have spoken to The Athletic of concerns that Barcelona’s training is too light on physical preparation.
They said there is a feeling players are no longer training like athletes in preparing their physiques to be stronger. Sources said that, instead, Barca train much more with the ball. They also highlighted worries that, at times, tactical drills were taking precedence over physical training.
Sources on the club’s technical staff disagree with any suggestion that high standards are not being met, and reject the notion that physical preparation is not a priority. They point to the number of winning goals the team have scored late in La Liga games this season, something they suggest shows stronger-than-usual physical levels.
Barcelona are obviously unhappy that there have been so many injuries — but they say all big teams have them. They also believe the squad being short on depth in certain positions has contributed to this problem.
When Xavi was appointed in November 2021, he made changes within the physiotherapy and coaching staff structure, removing some employees and hiring new ones. These changes were made precisely because they considered the physical condition of players to be a priority, sources said.
But still, several of his squad have engaged with outside professionals to help in their physical preparation. Barca have now asked all players to keep them informed of such work carried out beyond the club’s training facilities.
Xavi announced in January that he would step down at the end of the season (Pau Barrena/AFP via Getty Images)
Dr Llobet believes Barcelona’s ‘philosophy’ may explain a comparative lack of emphasis on physical training.
“If you prepare the footballer as an athlete, you put emphasis on the musculoskeletal structure,” he says. “If you give more importance to training on the ball, you emphasise other aspects.
“I don’t know if Barcelona prioritise the ball over the physical now, but Barcelona’s football philosophy is not based on the physical aspect: it is based on the technical aspect. This was introduced by Johan Cruyff. Football has evolved since then. Now it is more physical, players run a lot more and so physically they are more solidly prepared. Many spend more hours on the physical side than on the technical side. I think Barca are the way they are because they haven’t been able to adapt to that.”
As for the suggestion that an overload of playing time is the problem behind Barcelona’s injuries, Llobet is in no doubt that Pedri’s case has been affected by that.
“Pedri has had many injuries in the same place; there is something wrong with him,” he says. “It’s in how Pedri’s muscle injuries have been treated from the first minute. Injuries scar, and without time to properly regenerate, the tissue becomes weaker. This is what has happened, because of the urgencies that the club and the national team have had. Barcelona are burning young players so fast.”
The Athletic contacted both Barcelona and the Spanish Football Federation for a response on these points, but neither wished to comment.
Dr Lluis Puig, head of the physiotherapy department at the Catalan city’s Hospital de l’Esperit Sant, and a professional who has worked with several athletes in his private practice, puts his view on the topic simply.
“High-level sport does not always equal health,” he says. “Fatigue exists. If you’ve played 73 games a season, as Pedri did, then the summer comes and you only have 15 days off, you’re accumulating fatigue. Your muscles can’t respond in the same way, because you’re constantly asking them to make a big effort. It’s just as important to compete and train as it is to rest.”
Dr Cugat, the surgeon who operated on Fati, agrees.
“If the player doesn’t rest, they notice it,” he says. “But the professional always wants to play. There is a competitive fever now to win titles and games that makes especially the younger ones always want to be there.”
Pedri himself touched on this point in a Twitch interview with Spanish streaming celebrity Ibai Llanos in early January.
“My first season at the club was so long. I played 73 games and it might have affected my current state,” he said. “We won’t know (its impact for certain), but back then I was so young I had the desire to conquer the world.”
Injured Pedri walking off on Sunday against Athletic Bilbao (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Dr Llobet also believes growing demands in youth football are leaving players vulnerable to quickly developing issues once they transition to the senior game.
“Guys are already coming with a punished body from the youth teams,” he says.
“The players who are coming up now have been playing a lot since they were very young. If you stress or strain your body when you are growing, it causes alterations or transformations of ligaments, muscles and bones that do not occur in the majority of the population.
“If you add to this an overload of games, training and travel, you get a cocktail that does lead to more injuries.”
Yamal, Barca’s latest youth talent, doesn’t turn 17 until July. His breakthrough has been handled quite carefully, and Xavi has spoken multiple times of the need to “protect” him since his debut last April at the age of 15 years, nine months and 16 days.
One of Xavi’s main concerns and priorities since he arrived has been to avoid repeating the cases of Pedri and Fati, who both suffered their first serious injuries before his time in charge began. But in recent weeks, Yamal’s ability has been impossible to ignore, as injuries to Ferran Torres and Raphinha thrust him into first-team action. Yamal has been Barcelona’s standout attacking performer of late; so often the player they look for to make things happen.
Special efforts are still being made to make sure such a young player is not put in a position in which he consistently has to save the team — because technical staff consider that it is not his responsibility. They want to shield him from physical and mental demands. And yet, looking through the squad, it is hard to see a better option than him, and the club’s financial situation certainly does not leave room for bringing in a player of his standard.
The emergence of the centre-back Pau Cubarsi, 17, is another example of Barca producing an academy graduate of real quality, someone able to boost the club at a difficult time. As with Yamal’s situation, Xavi has been careful with Cubarsi’s playing time, regularly withdrawing him before the final whistle in matches he has started.
Such young talent will have Barcelona fans looking on with excitement — but there is an element of worry, too.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
