Luiz Suarez injury: Urugyuan International picked a calf muscle injury after the first match of the Spanish league, giving Barcelona a blow.
Barcelona are playing Athletic Bilbao in their first match of La Liga season, but the Catalan giants have received a big blow in the initial phase of the season, as the main striker Luiz Suarez has picked an injury while playing against the Basque club.
Since it’s a calf injury, the Urugyuan International is ruled out for next 6-8 weeks and making Barcelona attack even slimmer. Barcelona are already without Lionel Messi, as he is out due to fitness issues.
However, it seems Messi will also be not included in the next match. Thus, it seems Antoine Griezmann will be placed in the centre in place of Suarez. Whereas, Ousmanne Dembele will be able to fetch more minutes.
It doesn’t look as if Barcelona will face any problem with the absence of the 32-year-old star, but they don’t have any other option to provide a reliable backup to Griezmann in the absence of Suarez.
The Uruguayan striker looked to suffer an injury to his right calf muscle whilst taking a shot that cannoned back off the post and had to be replaced by Rafinha, who was also denied by the woodwork after coming on.
Suarez was being treated on the pitch but had to be ultimately substituted as he was not in a condition to continue the match. Now with Philippe also been speculated to make a move away from the club, Rafinha might play on the right-wing.
Barcelona have released a statement saying that Suarez would undergo scans tomorrow to determine the extent of the injury to his muscle. The Catalan giants will play Real Betis in the next match, and the load on Griezmann and Dembele to score has raised.
How twitter reacted
https://twitter.com/GoalNews/status/1162454247566430208?s=20
Luis Suarez and his best friend Leo Messi both suffering from a Calf Injury
Me, right now pic.twitter.com/DC1BWqbUxN
— Monsieur Nelsinho (@AlexediJnr) August 16, 2019
https://twitter.com/KoliOyama/status/1162453043935350784?s=20
Rafinha seemed out of the team at the beginning of the season (always linked to Valencia) and now he is playing in the 1st match due to Suárez injury. I still think he will move as there are many players above of him in terms of quality. Valencia? Celta return?
— Carlos Pardo (@Football_Connec) August 16, 2019