Barcelona star ruled out until 2026 due to injury

Barcelona defeated Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, but their victory at the Spotify Camp Nou has come at a cost. Dani Olmo was injured in the process of scoring their second goal, and it has now been confirmed that he is set for a spell on the sidelines

Olmo fell on his shoulder after striking the ball past Atleti goalkeeper Jan Oblak, and immediately he was in a lot of pain. Hansi Flick was forced to replace him, and as per Sport, he will now be without his services for the rest of the year.

Olmo has suffered a shoulder dislocation, for which he could surgery. The minimum time out for him will be three weeks, although Barcelona do not expect to count on him before the winter break.

The concern for Barcelona is that Olmo had issues with his left shoulder earlier in his career. In 2023, he was out for two months after undergoing surgery on a dislocation, which will spark fears of a possible recurrence of that situation, which would be dreadful news for the La Liga leaders.

Olmo had been in his best moment of the season, having scored twice against Alaves at the weekend and again against Atleti, but that has now come to an end. The bad news for Flick is that Fermin Lopez also remains out with an injury of his own, so the only natural attacking midfielder in his squad is Dro Fernandez.

The 17-year-old could start against Betis this weekend, although the likelihood is that Flick goes one of two ways: he plays Pedri further forward with Frenkie de Jong (if fit) and Eric Garcia in behind, or he uses Raphinha in a central position, which would allow Marcus Rashford to make his return to the starting line-up.