Barcelona concerned as star player on course to match Pedri’s number of games from 2020-21 season | OneFootball

Everyone’s seen the infamous photo of Pedri from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but we could see a repeat this summer from another Barcelona star: Ilkay Gundogan.

Gundogan played 51 of Barcelona’s 53 matches last season – he was one of the few players not to suffer with injury problems, and that meant that Xavi Hernandez was over-reliant on the midfielder, who was signed from Manchester City in the summer of 2023.

In total, Gundogan has played 64 matches since the start of last season. Those 13 matches for Germany includes 10 friendlies, while he played in each of their Euro 2024 group stages matches. If Julen Nagelsmann’s side reached the final, a realistic possibility, then the 33-year-old would have played 68 games – assuming that he played in every knockout stage fixture.

As per MD, this would take him to same amount of matches that Pedri played in that 2020-21 season. Understandably, Barcelona are concerned of the effects this could have on Gundogan going into next season.

Irrespective of whether Germany do reach the later stages of Euro 2024, Barcelona will need to take extreme care with Gundogan during pre-season. They cannot push him too much, otherwise an injury would be inevitable. Hansi Flick should be aware of this.