Barcelona star ‘a serious doubt’ to face Osasuna after suffering injury vs Benfica | OneFootball

A leading member of the defensive ranks at La Liga giants Barcelona has emerged as a major doubt to feature in the club’s next outing.

That’s according to Barca insider Javier Miguel of Diario AS, who points towards Alejandro Balde as the player in question.

Left-back Balde, for his part, was in from the off once again on Wednesday, as Barcelona made the trip to Portugal for a Champions League meeting with Benfica.

And though the Spanish international ultimately managed to see out the 90 minutes, he picked up a fitness problem along the way.

As per a report from AS:

‘Balde was seen suffering unspeakably in the last minutes. Hansi Flick quickly realised the problems of the youth player and decided to bring on Gerard Martín to relieve Balde of defensive tasks, placing him in a more advanced position.’

After being tended to post-match, it was discovered that Balde had picked up an ankle problem.

The expectation is therefore that the 21-year-old will be afforded the day off on Saturday, when Barcelona play host to Osasuna.

This comes with a view to Balde being fully fit for next week’s return leg against Benfica.

Conor Laird – GSFN