Barcelona will reportedly be spared splashing out a further €10m on Ousmane Dembele after he suffered a serious injury at the weekend.
The 20-year-old lasted just 29 minutes in his first La Liga start in the win over Getafe, and it was later confirmed by the Catalan giants that he would be ruled out for up to four months.
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Naturally, that’s a huge blow to Dembele, Ernesto Valverde and the club as a whole, but AS report that it will result in Barcelona not having to make an additional payment for their summer signing as part of the agreement reached with Borussia Dortmund.
Barca are due to make a €10m payment to the Bundesliga giants when Dembele makes 50 appearances for them, but that is now unlikely to happen this season and so will be delayed for another year or so.
It’s not quite positive news given that Barcelona would much rather have the player available to play this season, but financially at least it’s something of a boost as they can spread out payments and adjust their accounts accordingly.
Nevertheless, it’s inevitable that they will eventually have to pay the additional fee, and so they’ll simply be hoping that Dembele can recover sooner rather than later to live up to his price-tag and be a fundamental part of their future success.
Meanwhile, the French international flew out to Finland on Monday as he’s expected to undergo surgery on Tuesday to begin the rehabilitation process.