Barcelona on alert as key defender suffers ankle injury in Nations League tie | OneFootball

There was significant indignation at FC Barcelona when they found that their postponed game against Osasuna had been rescheduled to be played on 27th March.

One of the reasons for the Blaugranes’ annoyance was that this game would come right after the March international break, and they would not be able to count on some of their important players.

One such player who would not be able to play on that date would be Raphinha, while Ronald Araujo will also not be able to participate in this game as neither of the two players would be able to get much rest after their national team duties.

While a player as important as Raphinha will naturally be missed by the Catalan team, some recent events indicate they might miss Araujo even more if he is unable to play this game.

Inigo Martinez, who has been one of the starting center-backs for Hansi Flick this season, was injured in the game between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid and thus had to withdraw from the Spanish national team camp despite getting a call-up after quite a while.

However, his colleague in the backline, Pau Cubarsi, stayed with the national team and took to the field in last night’s UEFA Nations League quarter-final tie against the Netherlands.

But the Spanish defender was not able to last long in this match, as Mundo Deportivo reports how the youngster went to the ground in the last phase of the first half, and had to be subbed out, accompanied by doctors, in the 38th minute.

Although initial assessments suggest that his injury is not serious, detailed tests will be conducted today to determine its exact extent.

Hopefully, his injury will not turn out to be too bad, but Flick will be particularly concerned about the situation as, without Cubarsi, Martinez, and Araujo, he will only have Eric Garcia as his available center-back for the game against Osasuna.

Andreas Christensen can also recover in time for that game, but will clearly be far from his best level after spending such a long time on the sidelines.