Barcelona receive recovery period update after Marc-Andre ter Stegen surgery

Barcelona are set to get the result that suits their salary limit concerns from Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s injury to his back. On Tuesday the German goalkeeper underwent surgery for his persistent back pain, in hope of resolving the matter.

The controversy began when ter Stegen announced the decision, and declared that he would be out for a period of three months. Barcelona are once against struggling to register players, and were ter Stegen to be ruled out for four months or more, Barcelona could use 80% of his salary limit space to register other players. The 33-year-old’s announcement was seen by the club as a deliberate attempt to obstruct that process.

Barcelona announced on Tuesday that ter Stegen had successfully undergone surgery with Dr. Amelie Leglise in Bordeaux, France. They did not announce a recovery period for the German though, leaving the question of the salary limit rule up in the air. Diario AS now say that Leglise’s report will read that ter Stegen will require a period of around four months to recover from the back surgery though.

The Catalan giants now have a period of 30 days to submit the medical report, as well as scans and documents on the process to the Medical Committee of La Liga. Their three appointed medical experts will examine the documentation, and give the green light or not. Normally that committee is made up of four experts, but surgeon Jordi Ardevol will recuse himself from the case, due to having worked for Barcelona previously.

After ter Stegen’s announcement, it was reported that Barcelona were considering removing the captaincy from him. Their feeling is that he is no longer a role model for the rest of the squad, but also will spend the best part of 18 months injured, meaning he is no longer an effective link between the squad and the management. Manager Hansi Flick has stated that the players will decide their captain next season.