The 34-year-old midfielder picked up an ankle injury during the Catalan club’s 3-0 La Liga win against Sevilla a little over a week ago.
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Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets is ruled out of the upcoming first leg clash of the Europa League playoff tie against Manchester United at Camp Nou on Thursday, confirms Andria Albets. The 34-year-old midfielder picked up an ankle injury during the Catalan club’s 3-0 La Liga win against Sevilla a little over a week ago. The Spaniard missed Barca’s last outing against Villarreal on Sunday and is likely to be sidelined for two weeks according to Albets. Barcelona are currently sitting at the summit of La Liga standings, having collected 56 points from 20 games and are in red hot form heading into the crucial tie against the Red Devils.
👉 Busquets, descartado para el partido del jueves ante United. La idea es que tenga minutos el domingo contra el Cádiz y llegue en las mejores condiciones a Old Trafford. Ampliamos en @QueThiJugues
— Adrià Albets (@AdriaAlbets) February 13, 2023
As per the report, the idea is for Busquets to get some minutes in the La Liga clash against Cadiz later this week before becoming fully fit and ready for the second leg against the Premier League outfit at Old Trafford next week. Busquets had been in good form before getting injured against the Red-Whites. The 34-year-old was key to Xavi’s new system of the four-man midfield. He was the one who marshalled a fairly young midfield quartet consisting of Frenkie de Jong (25), Pedri (20) and Gavi (18).
Former AC Milan-man Franck Kessie is likely to replace Busquets in the engine room. The Ivory Coast international will give Barca a physical dominance in the middle of the park. And it will be interesting to see how the 26-year-old will deal with the Red Devils playmaker Bruno Fernandes in the mid-week. Kessie was very impressive in the 1-0 win over Villarreal on Sunday. He was solid in front of the back-four, not allowing any of the Villarreal players to pass through him. The Ivorian was barely dispossessed, and was sharp and quick with his decision-making.
FULL TIME!!!!!!!!!!! #VillarrealBarça pic.twitter.com/KfcLMvvfKi
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) February 12, 2023
🗣️ Javi Miguel: “Franck Kessié played close to Frenkie and had a very good game. If he keeps on playing like this, his continuity is certain.” pic.twitter.com/pmPreJtQFO
— infosfcb (@infosfcb) February 13, 2023
Barcelona have now extended their winning streak to 11 games across all competition, meanwhile Xavi’s side last tasted defeat against Bayern Munich in the group stage of Champions League, in October. Blaugrana have conceded just two goals in their last seven outings in all competitions and heading into the Europa League clash as firm favourites. Meanwhile, Manchester are also in pretty good form, having lost just once since the World Cup concluded and sit third in the Premier League standings, five points adrift of league-leaders Arsenal, having played two games extra.
