La Liga giants Barcelona have openly admitted that their efforts to rush Raphinha back to fitness culminated in the Brazilian suffering a relapse of his injury.
The Blaugrana spent the last week working tirelessly behind the scenes in a bid to put all the right conditions in place for Raphinha to play his part against Real Madrid on Sunday.
Just when it appeared as though the 28-year-old was on the right track, however, disaster struck.
After Raphinha was not spotted in training alongside the rest of Hansi Flick’s squad on Friday, confirmation followed that he had suffered a setback.
The former Leeds United man is now expected to be absent until the far side of the November international break.
And the Barcelona medical staff, as well as Hansi Flick and his coaches, are well aware of the part they played in as much.
As per a report from club insider Javier Miguel, writing for Diario AS, the Catalans have ‘admitted their mistake’ in rushing Raphinha’s recovery.
Conor Laird – GSFN
