Dembele suffers fresh hamstring injury

Barcelona have confirmed winger Ousmane Dembele is back for another spell on the sidelines after suffering another hamstring injury.

The Frenchman made his first appearance of the season as a second-half substitute in the recent 1-0 win over Dynamo Kyiv, having missed the entirety of the campaign so far because of an issue with his right hamstring which he picked up at Euro 2020.

He managed 25 minutes against Dynamo, but that’ll be his only action for a while as Barcelona confirmed that Dembele has now damaged his left hamstring and is set for an unspecified period on the sidelines.

The injury is described as a ‘strain’ and is hoped not to be too serious, but Barcelona declined to estimate how long he will be out for.

Dembele has missed a whopping 98 games through injury since joining the club back in 2017. Number 99 will come on Saturday when he sits out a clash with Celta Vigo, and if he remains injured over the international break, he could hit the century mark against Espanyol two weeks later.

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To make matters worse for interim boss Sergi Barjuan, Barcelona are also set to be without right-back (winger?) Sergino Dest after the American suffered a back problem in training.

The pair now head to the sidelines, where they will join Gerard Pique, Pedri, Sergi Roberto, Sergio Aguero, Martin Braithwaite and Moussa Wague.

Dembele’s renewed absence leaves Barcelona in the lurch in attack. Memphis Depay, Luuk de Jong, Ansu Fati and Philippe Coutinho are Barjuan’s only senior options, with young Yusuf Demir another option as well.

Barcelona have tumbled down to ninth in La Liga, nine points behind leaders Real Sociedad having played one game fewer.