It has not been a season to remember for Samuel Umtiti despite winning the World Cup with France over the summer. The French center-back suffered an injury early in the season that kept him out of action for a considerable amount of time. Then, when he returned against Atletico Madrid back in November, he finished the game but suffered an injury a few days after.
The source of Umtiti’s injury has been with his left knee. He’s been feeling discomfort there for a while and it does not seem to be getting any better despite him being well enough to return to action. The problem for both he and Barcelona is that nothing they’ve done seems to work. After the Atletico game, the club gave Umtiti some options of what they could do. One option was for conservative treatments and the other was surgery. Given the recovery time for the surgery, Umtiti opted for the latter.However, the treatments took a while to take effect and he wound up missing roughly the same amount of time that he would have had he opted for the surgery. The frustrating part for both parties is that a surgery seems like an inevitably given that the discomfort has returned. Unfortunately, a surgery means that he is likely to be out for the remainder of the season and even if they opt for an alternative, there’s no telling if they will be effective.
On social media, Umtiti was optimistic posting, “Everything is well, in the best of all worlds.”
The bright side for Barcelona is that the club has been able to handle Umtiti’s absence with the arrival of Clement Lenglet. He’s been able to take his countryman’s place and has blended in well with the backline forming a solid partnership with Gerard Pique.Regardless of whether Umtiti chooses to have the surgery now or in the summer, it’s become clear that a surgery is inevitable. Even with rumors of Matthijs de Ligt being close to signing with Barcelona, a healthy Umtiti is a must both the club and Ernesto Valverde.
No comments:
Post a Comment