The fourth Barça captain is counting down the days so that he can put on his shorts again and make his mark on the pitch. This is his last great opportunity, although his continuity as a Barça player is not at all clear, but not ruled out. The talks to renew have been stalled for months, when Barça presented an offer that the player’s advisers considered very low. While waiting for there to be a thaw between the club and Roberto’s representation, his portfolio has long since ceased to be a priority for the sports leadership. The inactivity to which the footballer has been exposed has not helped either. The man from Reus wants to turn this situation around. “He is very eager to return,” they say from his surroundings.
Roberto could play five to ten games before the end of the season. The player will still be out this Sunday against Levante and will also miss the return leg of the quarter-finals against Eintracht. He is also not expected to play against Cadiz on Monday 18. With the horizon set for the first leg of a hypothetical Europa League semi-final, which will be played on April 28, the player could reappear a little earlier. : against Real Sociedad on Thursday 21 or, more likely, against Rayo Vallecano on Sunday 24. In addition, the man from Reus knows that he has Xavi’s endorsement. While the coach will accept the club’s criteria in the negotiations, he also believes that Roberto would fit in with his Barça, with a role similar to that of Dani Alves: a winger with ease to occupy inner lanes.
End point at Calvary
In this way, the Reus native will put an end to the ordeal with the injuries that began last season. On November 21, 2020, the versatile Barça player was injured in the defeat (1-0) of Barça by Ronald Koeman in the Wanda Metropolitano. The following day, the Barça club reported that he had a fracture in the femoral rectus of his right thigh and would be out for approximately two months. In all, they were unable to play for about 70 days. But the hell of the injuries was just beginning. When it looked like he could compete again, Roberto reappeared and played just over 20 minutes against Athletic Club on January 31, 2021, but in the next game he recovered from his injury in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey. Granada, when he could only play 50 minutes.
Between the injury and the relapse, he suffered from coronavirus, a fact that Roberto also links, in a way, to his muscle problems. After two more months out, he reappeared against Real Madrid. “He’s a footballer with personality and he’s one of the captains of the team,” Koeman argued when he called him up for the April 10 classic last year. The footballer chained a period of some calm until, only a month later, he had discomfort in the same area again. That was the end of a season to forget.
Headaches returned this course. After starting the season plugged in, with two goals and an assist in the first three games, a new one arrived knock out. On October 27, muscle discomfort in the same area reappeared. The recovery process was restarted. The ghosts were coming back. He would be discharged on November 20, coinciding with Xavi’s debut on the Barça bench. He was called up, but did not play. In the following workouts he noticed discomfort again. Roberto sought medical advice in the event of relapses and agreed to undergo surgery. Finally, in early December, he was operated on in Turku (Finland) by the team of Dr. Lasse Lempainen, the same specialist who operated on Ousmane Dembélé.
