Barcelona defender’s return from injury creates a new headache for Hansi Flick | OneFootball

FC Barcelona started the season with very limited resources as in addition to making only two new additions in the last summer transfer window, a significant part of the Blaugrana squad was also sidelined due to injuries.

In the last few months, most of these injured players have gained full fitness, with only Marc Andre Ter Stegen and Marc Bernal remaining in the infirmary recovering from their long-term injuries.

While the return of these players is undoubtedly a blessing for Hansi Flick, this factor is also creating a significant problem.

Andreas Christensen was the latest player to get the medical green light to play a game, as he has overcome the injury to his right soleus muscle after almost a month.

With his return, Diario AS notes that Barcelona now have 25 players available, and thus at least two players will have to be discarded from the squad list for the upcoming games.

In La Liga and the UEFA Champions League, only 23 players can be called up, while this number is further decreased to 22 in the Copa del Rey.

As things stand, there are three players with a reserve team number who are called up regularly to the first team, i.e., Diego Kochen, Hector Fort, and Gerard Martin. Thus, the Blaugranes will have space only for 20 first-team players, while with Christensen’s return, the number of available first-team players has risen to 22.

In this regard, there has already been a notable casualty in the Barcelona squad, i.e., Ansu Fati, who has rarely been able to make the squad since the Copa del Rey tie against Barbastro on January 3rd. Pablo Torre was also left out for the last game against Atletico Madrid.

Now, with Christensen’s return, at least two players would have to be left out of each squad list. Fati is expected to remain one of these, while the other can either be Torre or Christensen, depending on the needs of the team.