Hansi Flick reveals when 23-year-old Barcelona player will return to action | OneFootball

Owing to the absence of some of his most important midfielders at the start of the 2024-25 season, Hansi Flick had to come up with some innovative solutions to field a competitive midfield for FC Barcelona.

One of the innovations that he made at the start of this season was playing Eric Garcia, who is naturally a center-back, as one of the midfield pivots, which allowed Flick to use Pedri higher up the pitch.

However, the Spanish defender had to endure an injury issue that has kept him unable to play for the last few weeks. He suffered a discomfort while warming up for the game against Sevilla, and at that time, was expected to return to action in only a few days.

But this problem kept him out for the two games against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid as well, and the former Manchester City defender was also unable to train with the rest of his teammates as Flick led the training sessions ahead of the game against Espanyol.

As Mundo Deportivo has reported, the German tactician addressed the press ahead of this game, and one of the topics he talked about was that of Eric Garcia’s absence. The Barcelona head coach clarified that the Spaniard would still need a significant time before he can return to the pitch:

“I think he’ll return after the international break. We had to decide to have him train separately from the group.”

Fortunately, other important midfielders like Frenkie de Jong, Gavi, Fermin Lopez, and Dani Olmo have all returned from their injury spells, and the center of the defense also has a reliable pairing of Pau Cubarsi and Inigo Martinez.

Thus, Garcia’s absence will not be felt too much, and the coaching staff can give him all the time he needs to return whenever he feels he is back to 100% fitness.