Injured Barça forward Dembele ready for next step in his recovery
Dembele should be back on the grass next week for light training
Ousmane Dembélé's recovery is on the right track. That sentence alone is good news in itself. The French player's attitude has been very positive since he found out on Jan. 28 that he had an injury to his left thigh. He felt a pinch in the match against Girona and for the first time since Xavi Hernandez took over he was ruled out with an injury.
SPORT has learned the Frenchman will soon take the next step (and perhaps the most important) in the recovery process. This week he has been working hard and progressively with the bike to strengthen the affected area and it is expected that early next week he will step on the grass for the first time.
Obviously without doing high-intensity exercises that could put his left thigh at risk, but as a first contact. It will have been two weeks since the day he got injured -- he was ruled out for 4-5 weeks after the initial tests.
As we said, things are going well and, most importantly, Ousmane is in good spirits and with a very positive mentality. He is aware that the work he has been doing for the last 1-2 years with his personal physio and with the club's physio (in this case Carlos Nogueira since Xavi's staff landed in Barcelona) is paying off and that doesn't have to change.
In fact, in the interview he gave to SPORT a few months ago, he assured that there had been a 'click' and that he had understood some time ago that he had to dedicate himself much more to being an elite footballer.
