Twelve days after their draw against Sevilla FC (1-1), FC Barcelona will return to business this Sunday, with a trip to Mallorca (9 p.m., 19th day of La Liga). Currently seventh in the Spanish Championship, the Catalan club no longer really has the right to make mistakes and will want to start the new year on a good note. But for this first outing in 2022, Xavi Hernandez will have to face a real headache.
While Dani Alves, Clément Lenglet, Alex Balde and Jordi Alba have already tested positive for Covid-19 a few hours ago, the Blaugranas issued a new press release this Wednesday morning to announce that Samuel Umtiti, Gavi and Ousmane Dembélé also had contracted the virus. With the isolation period, the seven players are therefore already forfeited for this trip to the Iberostar Estadio. Unfortunately for the former midfielder, the hecatomb does not end there.
Seven team A players in the squad otherwise …
Regarding the injured, Memphis Depay, Ansu Fati and Pedri are not 100% recovered and will also have to ignore this meeting. Added to this is the already formalized absence of Dani Alves, who will still have to wait before making his comeback with FC Barcelona. Suddenly, as explained by the Catalan daily Sport, there are only eight first-team outfielders available: Gerard Piqué, Ronald Araujo, Eric Garcia, Oscar Mingueza, Frenkie de Jong, Riqui Puig, Philippe Coutinho and Luuk de Jong.
Already appearing this season with the first team, youngsters Nico Gonzalez, Ferran Jutglà and Abde will normally still join the Barcelona group this weekend. But LaLiga rules are clear: it will take at least seven players from Team A in this one. And if this is not the case, Barca may have to withdraw. Very bad news to launch this new year, even if we are still far from it.
