Barcelona have been handed a boost as Ousmane Dembele has stepped up his recovery and is expected to return as scheduled at the start of February.
The 22-year-old has been limited to just nine appearances so far this season as he has continued to struggle with injuries.
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This latest hamstring problem has forced him to miss the last 10 games across all competitions, and so both he and Barcelona will be itching to get back to full fitness and make himself available for coach Quique Setien.
As reported by Mundo Deportivo, the Frenchman was seen in training this week and was going through some work with the ball to suggest that he is now stepping up his recovery.
It’s added that Dembele was initially expected back at the start of February, and so this latest update would suggest that he’s on track to stick to that recovery timeline and could be in contention to be selected by Setien in the coming weeks.
Time will tell if all goes to plan as Barcelona will no doubt want to be cautious with their star at this point as the last thing any one concerned needs at this late stage of his recovery is a setback and a lengthier spell on the sidelines.
In turn, it’s expected that the Catalan giants won’t rush him back, but ultimately with Luis Suarez out for four months after knee surgery, the reigning La Liga champions would be given a huge boost to have Dembele available for selection.
The responsibility of filling the void will be on the likes of Ansu Fati and Carles Perez for now to support Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi, but Setien could be handed a huge boost before long and it will be interesting to see if he can get the best out of Dembele on a regular basis moving forward.