The painful comparison of Dembele now and the one before he joined Barça

The painful comparison of Dembele now and the one before he joined Barça

 En el último minuto de partido el francés pudo marcar el cuarto y complicar aún más la vida al Liverpool en una contra que no culminó bien / | MEDIAPRO

Ousmane only missed 10 games through injury during his time at Rennes and Dortmund but has missed 50% of Barça's matches

Ousmane Dembele sparks a hot topic of debate wherever he goes. He seems to switch between moments of greatness with issues away from the pitch as well injuries. It's that last part which has caused the most concern amongst the FC Barcelona fan base. His most recent one is followed by claims he travelled to either Senegal or Rennes whilst injured, but also that he didn't know it was anything beyond normal aches and pains after the first match fo the season.

The cold, hard reality is that Ousmane has missed half Barça's official matches (40) compared to what he's played in since arriving at the club. Across all of his injuries, he's missed seven months of action and that hurts the club a lot. Especially when you compare that to his injury record before joining Barça: he missed just 10 games through injury at Rennes and Borussia Dortmund combined (2015-2017).

"The training sessions at Barça don't fit well with the demands of LaLiga matches," claims a person close to the French winger in declarations to 'L'Equipe'. Arthur, Semedo and de Jong which put too much pressure on their muscles. Ousmane felt discomfort during the first half of the match against Athletic Club but didn't tell any of the coaching staff. He kept playing. "He thought that it was just cramp. It's quite common for footballers to feel a little bit of discomfort. He forced himself to keep going to show what he was capable of, a youthful error in judgement," his agent Moussa Sissoko said.

"In his time at Rennes he was a pure athlete due to the effort he made, his explosiveness and his way to keep on going. He never had any injuries from the age of 14 until he left," Rennes' former academy director Patrick Rampillon claims.

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