Barcelona have confirmed that summer signing Malcom will be sidelined for a week after picking up an injury in training earlier this week.
The 21-year-old arrived from Bordeaux this past summer as the Catalan giants looked to bolster their attacking options for the campaign ahead.
However, the Brazilian ace has struggled to make his mark to this point as he’s played just six minutes in La Liga thus far with the attacking trident of Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Ousmane Dembele being preferred by Ernesto Valverde.
Nevertheless, with the Copa del Rey and Champions League getting underway in the coming months, the Barcelona boss will need all the quality and depth that he has to rotate when needed, and so any injury setbacks will be a blow.
According to the club’s official statement, Malcom picked up a problem in his right ankle, and it’s serious enough to keep him out for a week.
Given it’s the international break, it shouldn’t be too much of a blow as he’ll have time to recover without being left out of the squad.
In contrast, rather than working on his fitness and building chemistry with his teammates, at least with those who haven’t travelled away on international duty, he’ll now have to spend the break recovering from his knock and trying to force his way into Valverde’s plans moving forward.
With Messi, Suarez and Dembele all enjoying success so far this season though, it does appear as though Malcom, injury or no injury, may struggle to make that key breakthrough to start proving his worth at the Nou Camp.
The priority for now though will be getting back to full fitness.