Barcelona Confirm Major Injury Blow, Impacts Champions League Round of 16

The infirmary continues to be a revolving door for the defending Spanish champions.

Barcelona have a tough string of fixtures over the next six weeks. | Maria Gracia Jimenez/Soccrates/Getty Images

Barcelona announced midfielder Frenkie de Jong suffered a hamstring injury in training and is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Alarms bells sounded in Catalonia on Thursday after De Jong went down in training and could not complete the session. The defending Spanish champions were sweating over the midfielder’s status as he underwent further tests, but they received only bad news.

Barcelona confirmed De Jong sustained an injury to the distal biceps of his right leg and is expected to be out for up to six weeks. The Dutchman will therefore miss the entirety of March and the early weeks of April, leaving Hansi Flick with yet another injury to work around.

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De Jong’s Injury Comes at the Worst Time for Barcelona

Hansi Flick (above) just got Pedri back only to lose Frenkie de Jong. | Guille Martinez/f22photo/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Losing De Jong at any point in the season would be a major blow to the Catalans. The 28-year-old is the anchor of Flick’s midfield and the crucial link between Barcelona’s defense and attack.

De Jong has 31 appearances to his name this season and already has seven assists, matching his career-high tally in a single campaign. The midfielder is also coming off scoring his first goal of 2025–26 in the team’s 3–0 win over Levante.

Yet now Flick will have to get by without De Jong for the foreseeable future, giving the German boss another injury headache. Just when he got Pedri back from the infirmary, he now loses the Spaniard’s partner in the midfield.

To make matters worse, the injury comes at a particularly cruel time for Barcelona, who have a tough string of fixtures on the horizon.

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How Many Games Will De Jong Miss for Barcelona With a Hamstring Injury?

Frenkie de Jong is ruled out of the Champions League round of 16. | Maria Gracia Jimenez/Soccrates/Getty Images

If it takes De Jong the full six weeks to recover, he will miss eight games for Barcelona across all competitions. Tough La Liga matches await Flick’s side, including this weekend’s bout with third-place Villarreal.

The Catalans are also set to play Athletic Club, Sevilla, Rayo Vallecano and Atlético Madrid all in the span of De Jong’s projected recovery timeline. The run of fixtures pits Barcelona against the toughest teams in the Spanish league, apart from Real Madrid, when the team is only holding onto a one-point gap at the top of the table.

The bigger blows come outside of La Liga, though. De Jong will miss both legs of the Champions League round of 16, where Barcelona are set to play either Newcastle United or Paris Saint-Germain.

He is also ruled out for the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals against Diego Simeone’s Atlético, who hold a commanding 4–0 lead after running riot at the Metropolitano in the first leg.

Date	Opponent	Competition
Feb. 28	Villarreal (H)	La Liga
Mar. 3	Atlético Madrid (H)	Copa del Rey
Mar. 8	Athletic Club (A)	La Liga
Mar. 10/11	Newcastle/PSG*	Champions League
Mar. 15	Sevilla	La Liga
Mar. 17/18	Newcastle/PSG*	Champions League
Mar. 22	Rayo Vallecano	La Liga
Apr. 5	Atlético Madrid	La Liga

*Barcelona will find out their opponents for the Champions League round of 16 in the draw on Friday.

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