According to reports, this particular situation has caused Barcelona to revisit the team's training programme due to the large number of injuries the team has suffered this season.
A year ago, on 11 October 2024 to be exact, the new head of fitness at FC Barcelona made a public commitment to reduce the number of injuries in the first-team squad by 50 per cent, according to the report. "The only solution is to systematise training and to keep convincing the players that every day they have to do something to prevent injuries." He said, "We can't say we can completely eliminate injuries, but it's been proven that by working on prevention, the number of injuries goes down dramatically. I'm talking about a 50 per cent reduction." The fitness coach elaborated thusly at the time.
However, a year after this statement, Barcelona's injury list is almost "overcrowded". With Robert Lewandowski's latest injury confirmed, a total of eight players are currently out - in addition to the aforementioned Lewandowski, Olmo, Gavi, Yamal, Fermin, Rafinha, Joan Garcia and Ter Stegen - and that's more than 30 per cent of the squad.
Such a situation would be difficult for any coach to bear, let alone now that the season has only just started and the tournament is only two months old.
Clearly, the dressing room is looking for a solution to this mess. Injury prevention, which was so effective last season, is now completely ineffective. This is what completely baffles all the professionals at the club: no one understands why the methods that worked so well last year are now so out of tune.
The argument of "intensive fixtures and heavy training" is also not convincing enough: the same number of fixtures were played in the same period last season, but at this stage almost no players were injured.
Moreover, everyone was even expecting an improvement in the team's performance - especially considering that this summer's squad started its pre-season preparations after a month's break and was fully fit from day one. However, these expectations soon fizzled out.
It all started when Ter Stegen underwent surgery for a lumbar spine problem at the end of July. A few days later, Robert Lewandowski went down with a hamstring injury; followed by Gavi, whose right knee discomfort eventually led to arthroscopic meniscus surgery. Balde then sat out with a hamstring injury as well, followed by De Jong, who had muscular problems in his right knee.
Since then, Yamal has suffered from a painful pubic bone, and the injury has been compounded by the national team's lack of understanding - the team doctors injected him with painkillers in order to allow him to play against Turkey. The latest batch of injured players include Joan Garcia (meniscus surgery), Fermín López (psoas major injury), Rafinha (hamstring injury), Olmo (plantar fascia injury), and Lewandowski (biceps femoris tear), who is once again out of action.
Barca's 'injury ledger' is stacked with names - a year ago the club was boasting about their preventative training methods for players, claiming to have achieved a 50 per cent reduction in injuries. For now, however, his "ace" Pedri has not been affected by any injuries, even though he has shown clear signs of fatigue in recent matches.
In fact, Hansi Flick has made no secret of his concern over the high number of injuries and suspensions - which has apparently forced him to adjust his established plans for team management and rotation. The German coach does not doubt the competence of the medical team's professionals, but he is clearly demanding that a solution be found as soon as possible to turn the current situation around.
Against Girona, the German coach will welcome back Fermín López and Yamal to ease the pressure of injuries slightly - it should be noted that Ferran Torres returned from the national team with a muscular overload, but in principle it will not affect his debut this Saturday. More worrying is the situation of Rafinha, who will miss the games against Girona and Olympiacos; as for Olmo and Lewandowski, it is even more certain that they will not be available for the national derby.
With this situation, Flick also has to cope with a new month of intensive fixtures - six matches in 23 days. This comes after Barcelona lost the top spot in La Liga and are under pressure in the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain. Undoubtedly, this is not an optimistic situation, and goes some way to explaining his decision to take a week off in Formentera.