Dembele injury: Barça desperate to get to bottom of Frenchman's muscle problems
Ousmane has been affected by the latest setback after turning his professional life around
Ousmane Dembele clashed with Guerreiro going for a ball in the air. The Borussia Dortmund player got up without problems. In contrast, Dembele twisted his left leg and fell to the ground. He took his boots off immediately in resignation. "I don't know what to do anymore," it seemed he was saying.
The winger left the pitch with his head down, unable to hold back the tears as he headed down the tunnel. The first word from Barcelona was that he had a thigh problem with further tests to come. An update should have come on Thursday. But it didn't arrive.
HURTINg
Dembele was devastated on Thursday. Lionel Messi went up to him on the pitch, to show his support. He found a really frustrated player. Things remained the same on Thursday, when the French forward underwent more tests.
He arrived at Barcelona without having had any serious injuries at Dortmund, maybe for that reason without a proper understanding of what it takes to be a professional footballer at the very top level.
At Camp Nou, and following a series of episodes that tested the patience of some people around him, he realized that he had to make changes to his lifestyle. So he did. He's got things in order. He seems to understand that the only way to be a success at Barça and to have a long career full of trophies is to get his life in order. He realised that and he made changes and it's been a long time since he had any discipline problems.
The forward, in fact, was picked ahead of Griezmann against Dortmund. An important game. Then he found himself on the floor again.
TESTS
There was no update from Barça on Thursday about Dembele's problem. The reason is that the extreme concern with which the club have viewed this latest setback. There's a lot of worry about the fragility of his muscles. He visited various hospitals on Thursday for a number of tests and analysis to find out what's happening.
The challenge is now to recover Dembele as soon as possible -- mentally and physically. They believe they can because the player is doing all he can to play his part, but the injury on Wednesday was a blow for everyone.
Something similar happened to Messi in his early years, but he was able to completely turn around his personal and professional life.
