Barcelona confirm Lamine Yamal injury: how long will he be out and which games will he miss?

Barcelona have confirmed Lamine Yamal has suffered an injury, which had been heavily suspected after he picked up a knock in last week’s Champions League win over Crvena Zvezda and was left out of Sunday’s LaLiga defeat away to Real Sociedad.

What injury does Lamine Yamal have?

“Tests this morning confirmed that first team player Lamine Yamal has a grade 1 high right ankle sprain,” Barça posted on social media on Monday. “He is expected to be out for two to three weeks.”

The timing of the injury could, at least, have been much worse from the Catalans’ point of view. The weekend loss in the Basque Country was their last game before the November international break, with their next fixture not until Saturday, November 23 (away to Celta Vigo).

Which Barça games could Yamal miss?

The club games Yamal is likely to miss will very much depend on whether his recovery takes two or three weeks, or potentially longer. He will, however, now not feature in Spain’s UEFA Nations League games against Denmark (Friday, November 15) and Switzerland (Monday, November 18)

The best-case scenario (two weeks) would see the teenage superstar miss that clash against Celta in Vigo but should just about give him time to return to the fold for the Champions League home fixture against French club Brest on Tuesday, November 26.

If Yamal were to ultimately miss three weeks of action, he would sit out both of those games, as well as the LaLiga clash at home to Las Palmas on Saturday, November 30. Provided the timescales given are correct, the winger should be available for the trip to Mallorca on Wednesday, December 4.

Robert Lewandowski injury update

Barça also confirmed striker Robert Lewandowski had suffered a lower back injury against Real Sociedad which will keep him out for “approximately 10 days”. If that proves to be the case, he will sit out Poland’s Nations League games against Portugal and Scotland but wouldn’t miss any club action.