Barcelona’s injury crisis has shown little sign of abating, and is now threatening to capsize their title challenge. While it looked like the Catalan side might be getting back to full health last week, the situation has taken a left turn since.

Lamine Yamal continues to deal with pain from his groin issue, and is still not looking like his old self. It appeared Raphinha would be back in action against Real Madrid until Thursday last week, but he has suffered a setback, and is now back to square one with a hamstring issue. Now Pedri is also set for an extended spell on the sidelines, after his own hamstring tear, and will miss some key games.

Image: An early prediction for the 2026-27 third kit. @memorabilia1899

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Frenkie de Jong, Pau Cubarsi  and Marcus Rashford not in training

It was curious that on Wednesday, after a day off on Tuesday, Pau Cubarsi, Marcus Rashford and Frenkie de Jong were all absent from training. Reports emerged that all three of the absences were approved by the club, with the Dutchman seemingly attending to a personal matter, and Rashford flying back to Manchester before returning on Wednesday night. Given the importance of this week for Hansi Flick to pick up his players after El Clasico, and a rare week with time on the training ground, the absence of three key players from training was striking.

Absences part of fresh Hansi Flick measure against injuries

Now MD have revealed that Flick is in fact behind those absences. The German manager granted the trio an extra day off this week in an attempt to manage their workload. Rashford, de Jong and Cubarsi represent three of the most used players in recent weeks, and Jules Kounde was also given extra time off.

Pedri was due to have the day off too, but was instead in the gym after receiving his injury diagnosis. Those five players were the ones that the fitness staff had analysed needed the rest most. The same could occur with other players in the coming weeks. Flick is in a tricky situation, where he can ill-afford to lose more players, but must demand more from his players in the coming weeks.