FC Barcelona suffered a further injury setback on Thursday when it was confirmed that central defender Samuel Umtiti will be out of action for three weeks with a muscle injury.
Umtiti suffered the injury to his left hamstring while training with the French national team on Wednesday and returned to Barcelona for tests.
The tests were carried out on Thursday and confirmed he will be sidelined for three weeks, meaning he will miss league matches against Malaga and Real Sociedad, a King’s Cup game away to third tier side, Hercules and a Champions League tie away to Glasgow Celtic.
Samuel Umtiti’s goal will be to be fit for the first ‘Clasico’ of the season when Barca entertain bitter rivals, Real Madrid in the Camp Nou Stadium on December 3rd.
This is Samuel Umtiti’s second injury since joining Barca from Lyon over the summer and comes at a bad time for the club as Gerard Pique, Jeremy Mathieu, Jordi Alba and Andres Iniesta have all missed the past fortnight with a variety of injuries, although Pique, Alba and Mathieu should have recovered by the end of the current international break and be available to face Malaga on November 18th.