Barcelona star Ousmane Dembele in race to be fit for Chelsea clash after suffering fresh hamstring injury

Vaishali Bhardwaj15 January 2018

Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele faces a race to be fit for the club's Champions League last-16 clash against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge after suffering another injury set-back.

The 20-year France star suffered a hamstring injury in Barcelona's 4-2 comeback win away to Real Sociedad on Sunday - which was just his fourth appearance following his return from four months out with another hamstring injury.

Dembele became Barcelona's record signing when he arrived from Borussia Dortmund for an initial £96.8m fee last summer, but was forced to undergo surgery on his leg after sustaining a hamstring injury against Getafe in what was only his third appearance for the club.

With the forward now having suffered a fresh set-back - which isn't linked to his previous injury - Barcelona have confirmed that Dembele will miss between three and four weeks of action, which could make him a doubt for Barcelona's Champions League last-16 first leg at Stamford Bridge on 20 February.

In a statement released on their official website, Barcelona said: "The victory in Anoeta on Sunday has brought bad news in the shape of an injury Ousmane Dembélé.

"After the game against Real Sociedad, Dembélé had a problem with his left thigh and test have confirmed that the player has suffered a hamstring injury of the semitendinosus muscle that does not affect the area operated on earlier in the season.

"The injury will mean he will be out for a period of around three to four weeks."

While Dembele was Barcelona's record signing last summer after arriving as a replacement for Neymar, who joined Paris Saint-Germain in a £200m deal, his transfer fee has since been eclipsed by the £142million the Catalan giants paid Liverpool for Philippe Coutinho last week.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in