BARCELONA – Philippe Coutinho’s recovery, injured at the end of 2020 and operated on the external meniscus of the right knee on January 2, is a cause for concern in Barcelona, which almost three months after the procedure does not set a deadline for a return that was initially estimated to be beginning April.
The Barça club denied (nor confirmed) ESPN information from TV3 according to which the Brazilian underwent surgery a few weeks ago to remove a cyst from the same knee that caused him a lot of discomfort and then decided to travel to Qatar for consultation with a specialist from the Aspetar clinic.
At Barça they don’t want to set deadlines now when it comes to his recovery, assuming his return is completely ruled out in April and that, with any luck, he could make an appearance again in the last part of the course in mid-May. In this way, it is certainly clear that the former Liverpool player will not add the ten games left to reach 100 with the Barça shirt and that they will avoid giving his old club the established 20 million euro bonus. has to pay what he agreed when he did. was signed in January 2018.
In addition, his future at Camp Nou is marked with an asterisk because Joan Laporta’s board of directors, pending the coach’s approval, is seriously considering the footballer’s departure at the end of the course, either through a transfer or a Others. in any case, reduce the wages of the staff, which in his case means more than 25 million euros gross per season. In fact, the savings plan could envisage that while more than 50 million still has to be written off from his signing, an agreed exit similar to Luis Suárez’s would be agreed last summer.
And it is that Coutinho, considered one of the players the club would not have for the next campaign, began the course with the consideration of a starter in the eyes of Ronald Koeman, completing the first three days of the competition, but after some time. first annoying From the October Classic, his presence in the eleven lost consistency and since his return in November and until his injury on December 29, he only got into the starting eleven in five of the nine games played, none of which he completed.