Barcelona Star Dembele Drops Huge Hint About Potentially Early Return From Injury on Social Media

Ousmane Dembele has hinted that he could make an earlier than expected return to Barcelona's first-team following his hamstring injury.

The club's all-time record signing is expected to be out for around four months after he tore a ligament around his left thigh, and underwent surgery on the problem in Finland on Monday.

Now, though, Dembele is already gunning to back to full fitness earlier than that after he took to his official Instagram account to reveal he wants to be playing again within two months.

The 20-year-old posted the official team photograph of his fellow Barcelona stars all wearing t-shirts bearing the slogan "Courage Ousmane" after he was ruled out with the injury, and the accompanying hashtag captions provided an indication of when he hoped to be back on the pitch.

Dembele said: "Well done Barca. I hope to be back in two months."

It is likely that the forward was referencing when he would be back in training in some capacity rather than a full senior return, but never say never given how young stars' bodies recover quicker than their elder statesmen.

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Dembele was only making his third appearance for La Blaugrana, following his £135.5m switch from Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund, in the 2-1 win over Getafe when he sustained the ligament tear.

Video footage during the players' warm up appeared to show the ex-Rennes youth product feeling the back of his left leg at the time, but played down the potential problem to feature for Ernesto Valverde's men.

That mistake has now cost Dembele crucial playing time with his new team mates, and Valverde commented after the Getafe win that a more experienced player may have recognised when to state he couldn't play due to the niggle.