Should Barcelona be worried by all these hamstring injuries?

Barcelona’s medical room is starting to feel like a revolving door, and every time it swings the diagnosis is the same: another hamstring problem. On Thursday the club confirmed that Frenkie de Jong will miss up to six weeks after injuring his left hamstring while shooting in training, making him the seventh first-team player this season to suffer the ailment.

The Dutchman’s setback lands just as Pedri completed a carefully managed return from an identical complaint, scoring within minutes of his reintroduction in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Levante that sent Hansi Flick’s side back to the Liga summit. Optimism was short-lived. Within 72 hours of that result Barça were again debating how a squad that had been promised a lighter load—only one match per week for the past fortnight—has still managed to produce another muscular casualty.

De Jong now joins Raphinha, Alejandro Balde, Ferran Torres, Robert Lewandowski and Pedri on the hamstring-injury list; Eric Garcia felt tightness in the same area against Girona on 16 February but subsequent scans cleared him of a tear. Even so, the recurrence of the problem in the same muscle group has triggered unease inside the dressing room and in the stands.

Raphinha’s saga illustrates the complexity of the issue. The Brazilian winger first damaged a hamstring in September, endured two relapses during rehab, missed October’s Clásico, and this month suffered a fresh strain that limited him to 63 minutes at Girona. He is not alone in experiencing a second lay-off; Pedri was sidelined twice by identical complaints between November and January.

Barcelona staff maintain that communication between players, coaches and medics is “zero-risk”: athletes are encouraged to flag any discomfort, and training loads are adjusted instantly. Yet sources close to the coaching staff, speaking anonymously because they are not authorised to comment publicly, argue that Flick’s tactical blueprint—relentless pressing and a high offside trap—exposes defenders to repeated, explosive sprints, particularly when officials allow play to continue despite clear offside calls. Those extra bursts, coaches believe, accumulate fatigue in the posterior chain and invite injury.

Tensions over injury management have simmered since autumn. By November a dozen squad members had already spent time in rehab, prompting friction between the fitness coaches who arrived with Flick in summer 2024 and the longer-serving medical and physiotherapy staff. One flash-point came on 21 October, when one department cleared Ferran Torres to face Olympiacos while another recommended caution; the forward remained an unused substitute as the disagreement played out in real time.

Players, including teenage star Lamine Yamal, have privately questioned the uniformity of recovery protocols, while senior figures in the technical area are equally frustrated by the steady stream of setbacks. Although De Jong’s injury occurred in an open-training finish, rather than during match play, it has reopened debate over whether the club’s sports-science departments require restructuring at season’s end.

For now, Flick must plan without his metronomic midfielder for the Champions League last-16 second leg against Newcastle and, should Barça advance, a likely quarter-final versus Atlético Madrid or Tottenham. The timing elevates 18-year-old Marc Bernal, whose recovery from an anterior-cruciate-ligament rupture last August has been deliberately slow. Bernal scored the opener against Levante on only his second start of the campaign and is expected to anchor midfield alongside Pedri, whose minutes will be rationed to ensure peak condition for the European ties ahead.

Dani Olmo and Fermín López will contest the advanced role, while Marc Casadó and Eric García provide depth. García, currently preferred in central defence, may yet be redeployed in the pivot to ease the burden on Bernal.

The broader question remains: is this merely an unfortunate cluster, or does Barcelona’s high-wire style inherently court soft-tissue risk? With seven hamstring injuries—several of them recurrent—the club can no longer dismiss the pattern as coincidence. How Flick, his staff and the board address the issue between now and June could determine whether this season’s title challenge and European ambitions end in celebration or another wave of what-ifs.