Puyol offers advice to Gavi on ACL injury: Unfortunately I have experience

On Sunday, Barcelona were rocked after Gavi suffered a serious knee injury whilst playing for Spain against Georgia. Less than 24 hours, worst fears were confirmed as it was revealed that the 19-year-old midfielder had torn his anterior cruciate ligament and damaged his meniscus, meaning he will miss the rest of the season.

Gavi left the field in tears following the injury, and his headspace probably has not improved much during the time since Sunday. He will need advice on how to approach the situation, and Barcelona icon Carles Puyol has given him some very good ones, as per MD.

“Unfortunately I have experience with injuries. The first thing is to send him a lot of encouragement, that now he has patience. We all know Gavi, the winning character he has. He must be thinking about having surgery and starting rehabilitation. So the advice is ‘be patient, he’s very young and he has a lot of games ahead of him.’

“He can come back, for sure and I’m sure he’ll come back very well. He’s young and at his age everything recovers much faster, but the important thing is to be patient and not to rush things, especially in the first few months. It’s said by someone who didn’t have any patience and wanted to run a lot and I paid dearly for it. He should be calm, I’m sure he’s in very good hands.”

Puyol suffered his fair share of injury problems during his career, and still cemented himself as a Barcelona legend. Gavi will hope he can do the same, once he comes back from this season-ending absence.