?A specialist panel working with La Liga will review the extent of Ousmane Dembele’s injury, with doubt being cast over Barcelona’s initial prognosis that he will miss six months and potentially scuppering their emergency transfer plans.
Barça put out a statement earlier in the week suggesting that the forward was feeling discomfort in his right leg, although there were no initial concerns that it would be anything severe. But further tests carried out by club doctors revealed a hamstring injury picked up in training has ended his season prematurely.
This ?most recent setback follows a long line of injuries the Frenchman has suffered since moving to La Liga, preventing him from cementing a regular spot in the side.
Due to the length of the 22-year-old winger’s layoff, La Blaugrana looked set to be given special permission from the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to make a new signing outside of the transfer window. Some reports even suggested that they had even ?reached an agreement for Willian Jose to join from Real Socieded.
But ?Sport report that those plans could be shelved as there is serious doubt over the estimation ?Barça placed on Dembele’s layoff, as the hamstring injury is the exact same injury he picked up on his other leg back in 2017. He missed a total of 106 days – nowhere near the six-month timeframe claimed by his club this time around.
Should Dembele be sidelined for fewer than five months, then the severity of his injury wouldn’t be enough to grant Barça special dispensation to sign another forward outside of the transfer window.
To look over his injury, a specialist group in sports medicine will reevaluate all the details submitted by Barça, and the committee will present their own estimation on his injury, potentially curtailing any hopes the club had of securing a stop-gap signing.
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