The latest FIFPRO report published in September highlighted heavily on how much more games the likes of Lamine Yamal and Gavi are playing at their game compared to some of the greats and former La Masia graduates such as Andreas Iniesta, and the concern over whether their young players are overworked is beginning to grow.
The report highlighted that at 18, Andreas Iniesta played 40 matches for the club, at the time being a massive number for a young player, but for Yamal, at only 18 years old, he has smashed that tally out the park playing over 130 matches since joining Barca’s first team setup. Similarly with Gavi who has become a first team player since the age of 18, played 60 games for the club before turning 19, however he himself has had his fair share of injuries.
During a campaign with Spain in the 2023/24 season, Gavi suffered a season ending ACL tear after playing almost 100 games since the start of the 2022/23 season, showing how the workload and stress his body took was the sole reason for the terrible ACL tear during Euro qualifiers. Even now after returning from his ACL injury, a handful of small injuries including some fitness issues occurred due to massive workloads, and even now, another joint issue has caused him to miss 31 club games for Barca so far, making this mass amount of game time a real health concern for some of Barca’s best young talent.
Even now, with Lamine Yamal sidelined for a couple of weeks due to non-football related injuries, Yamal is showing signs that the constant league, knockout stage, and international games are becoming an issue, and as important as he and other young stars are to Barca, it is an issue they are willing to brush to the side.
However it isn't only the big boys who are beginning to crop up with injuries. The likes of Marc Bernal who suffered a season ending ACL tear have already been thrown into the starting lineup with little recovery, and risk of recurring injuries should definitely be a worry for Barca, and with how much young talent they have, it should be a concern for years to come. With how vital the young core is becoming for Barca, and how dependent they are becoming of their youth, burning out is a real possibility, and with years of football ahead, and already major workloads at young ages, theory should be careful, and do everything to avoid their rising star from becoming injury prone, or even just burnt out completely.
Comments