a tragedy that does not end with only 22 years

Bad luck struck Ansu Fati. The Barça winger is broken down again and will revisit one of the areas of the club where no one wants to go, but which he already knows very well, the infirmary. On Wednesday, during training, the Blaugrana suffered a muscle injury to the biceps femoris of the right thigh which will prevent him from regaining team discipline for four weeks.

This is the player’s second injury in three and a half months since the start of the competition. The first happened during the preseason. Ansu Fati returned to Barça after his loan at Brighton with the ambition of once again becoming that player who amazed the world of football in 2020. However, a plantar fasciitis of the right foot This prevented him from taking the team’s American tour and he also missed the first five league games.

The path that Ansu Fati What must happen to return to an optimal level of competition is fraught with pitfalls. Hansi Film He trusts him, but injuries only delay his preparation. This season he only played 158 minutes divided into seven games, the rest was watched from the bench.

Ansu Fati should be back for the match which will take place at Montjuïc on December 15 between Barça and Leganés. Therefore, the Barcelona winger will miss the matches against Celta de Vigo; Brest; Las Palmas; Majorca; Betis and Borussia Dortmund. This was going to be the season of the return of the best Ansu Fati, that player who, due to Xavi’s lack of opportunities, had to emigrate to the Premier League.

Roberto DeZerbi was the first to try to recover its best version in the BrightonHowever, injuries once again slowed his progress. “My opinion on Ansu Fati has not changed. He is one of the best talents in the world at his age, but he needs to improve his performances,” improve your physical condition and also your mind“, admitted the Italian coach. The Spanish winger played 27 matches with the “Las Gaviotas” jersey and only started seven of them.

Your injury history

November 7 will be a date that Ansu Fati will never forget. During a match against Betis, he tore the external meniscus in his left knee. In normal situations, after four months, the player should have moved on, but this was not the case for Ansu Fati who had to undergo three additional surgeries. A challenge which, four years later, has still not been overcome.

Injuries have completely halted his projection, even though he is only 22, Ansu Fati has already been almost two years of his career injured. The meniscus injury kept him out of action for 305 days and shortly after reappearing without losing his scoring instincts, an injury to the biceps femoris in his left leg sidelined him for 65 days.

The insecurity born from the first operation led him to make the decision to follow a conservative treatment instead of undergoing further surgery, but when upon his return in January 2022 he suffered a torn biceps femoris in his left leg, he was out for a further 66 days, although out of caution his reappearance was been extended for an additional month.

Every time Ansu Fati recovered from injury and returned to the playing fields, he was injured again. the never ending story. This is why the committee chose to look for other alternatives to the Spanish winger position, both on the market and in the career. Ansu Fati was relegated to the bench. Xavi didn’t count on himdespite the fact that during the 2022-23 season he only suffered a slight knee contusion and there were no traces of old fears.

The player did not accept this new role and, together with the board, they decided to find a solution in the form of assignment in case Ansu Fati explodes again like he did a few seasons ago. He has no shortage of offers and decides to try his luck in the Premier League, a championship which requires great physical strength.

The wounds traveled with him

On September 1, 2023, Ansu Fati was packing his bags for the coastal town of Brighton & Hove after receiving a call from a Roberto DeZerbi which ended up tipping the scales between “Las Gaviotas” and the Tottenham. Xavi did not guarantee him minutes at Barça and the Italian convinced him that at Brighton he could be reborn, be the promise that burst onto the football scene and have the notoriety he wanted.

However, on November 26, he had a calf injury which separated him from the team until February 11, after being injured for more than two months. “Ansu Fati must give something more because what he is doing is not enough,” demanded the Italian coach.

“The expectations for him are still very high. His first part of his career was difficult to accept and understand, but for great players the most important thing is to adapt to the expectations they have,” added the Brighton coach at press conference. .

At the end of the 2023-24 season, Brighton said goodbye to Ansu Fati via their social networks and confirmed what was an open secret: the English team did not want to extend the Barça winger’s loan. The departure of Xavi Hernández and the arrival of Hansi Film was received as a ray of hope for the player, although it didn’t take long for the dark clouds to make this glimmer of hope disappear.

“When you come back from an injury, you also have to adapt. We have good communication with him (Ansu Fati), with the medical staff and with the physical trainers to give him the opportunity to have a few minutes because he needs it to come back to the starting XI. What I see from him is that he is at another level and that he can help us a lot,” admitted the German coach in the preview. match against Villarreal, September 21.

Message from Luis de la Fuente

The coach continues to have blind faith in Ansu. In the preview of the two matches that Spain will play in La Liga against Denmark and Switzerland, Luis de la Fuente He wanted to comment on the new setback suffered by the player: “It hurts me very much that he is injured again and of course he can be recovered. His talent is fantastic. He has been with me at different stages and I am I’m sure he can come back.

“Everything is a process. First of all, it has to happen because he is good, confident, confident and he plays a great game. When he plays a great game and he is satisfied, his dynamic will change, hopefully Ansu is a player who always had in mind to be selected”, confessed the Spanish coach.

At 22, Ansu still has a bright future ahead of him, but the player must put an end to his injury history if he does not want his sporting career to end prematurely. The player has contract in force with Barça until 2027so depending on the evolution of this season, Ansu Fati will be able to stay and realize his dream of succeeding at Barça or he will have to look for a new solution.