Barcelona "will not make a big deal" out of latest Ousmane Dembele injury
Ernesto Valverde played down the French star's hamstring problem
The Barça coach hopes to have the forward back as soon as possible
Ernesto Valverde was questioned, during his press conference to preview Wednesday's Copa del Rey game at Espanyol, about the injury to Ousmane Dembele.
The France international has been ruled out for a month with a hamstring problem having just returned from a four-month layoff.
In total, he has made just seven appearances for Barça since his summer signing from Borussia Dortmund, but Valverde played down the 20-year-old's latest setback.
"When a player is out for so many months, coming back to play isn’t as simple as that," he said. "The initial idea was to introduce him slowly and it will be the same when he’s back. We hope it’s not too long, but these things can happen when you’re coming back from such a long term injury."
Valverde also said that he has not "spoken with Ousmane. To be honest, seeing the game [against Real Sociedad] I didn’t think there was anything, he seemed OK and he finished the game well… But It is what it is."
The Barça coach also asked for pressure not to be put on the player following a tough start to life at Camp Nou: "It was a serious injury in September against Getafe. Now it’s another smaller, different problem, but it’s not far from the last injury.
"But we’re not going to make a big deal of it. You start talking about [regular injury problems] and you end up believing them. I think it’s just another part of the job, another difficulty and something to solve. We're going to help him, we he’s back soon and that this ends up being an anecdote."
