Barcelona Signing Ousmane Dembele Out Four Months After Surgery
Barcelona star Ousmane Dembele has undergone successful surgery to treat the hamstring injury that he sustained in Saturday's 2-1 victory over Getafe.
The French wonderkid traveled to Helsinki, Finland, to have surgery on the injury, which forced him to come off after 25 minutes at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez. It was only Dembele's third appearance for the club following his £96.8m move from Borussia Dortmund.
In a club statement, Barcelona said: 'FC Barcelona striker Ousmane Dembele was successfully operated on Tuesday to repair a ruptured biceps femoris in his left leg.'
'Dr Sakari Orava performed the surgery. Dembele remains under the supervision of Dr Ricard Pruna. He is expected to be out for three and a half months.'
The latter extract of that statement will be a major blow to Barca fans, who would have been excited to see whether their big-money signing could fill the void infamously left by Neymar this summer.
Ernesto Valverde had his say on the injury, saying: "He's a player who has never had a muscular problem, he has no experience of recognising when you have a small niggle."
"To do a back-heel is the worst, the most aggressive thing you can do to the hamstring. It's not normal but it can happen. A more experienced player maybe would have let the ball go out."
The Barcelona manager, who has had a strong start to the league season following a nightmare pre-season, also went on to speculate over potential replacements for Dembele: "We have various players, [Gerard] Deulofeu, Aleix Vidal, Denis [Suarez], Andre [Gomes]. We will look for alternatives to play in the first XI. We will also take Barca B into account."
