The Frenchman injured his hamstring in the match against Celta Vigo
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Celta Vigo’s second goal, that turned out to be decisive in determining the match’s fate, was unfortunate considering that a player had pulled his hamstring and walked off the pitch during the build-up to the goal. And it is even more unfortunate that is was none other than Samuel Umtiti.
Not only would he have caught up to the sprinting Iago Aspas, he would have prevented the goal also. And to make things even worse, his preliminary medical examination has revealed that he will be out for 2 months.
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Although Umtiti has not gone through the tests, the injury is looking pretty bad. Aggravating things further, backup centre-back Javier Mascherano is also on the treatment table. Even though the Argentine will return before 15th December, Barcelona have three games between now and mid-December.
The side will travel to Castellón to take on Villarreal in a tricky game, and host Sporting CP and Levante at the Camp Nou during this period. In these games, Ernesto Valverde will only have Gerard Piqué and Thomas Vermaelen as options in the middle of defence.
While it will take a lot out of both defenders, Barcelona B do not have any centre-backs who can adjust to the top-flight with ease. David Costas is a promising young player, but he still has a long way to go before he can regularly feature for the first-team.
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Hence, Piqué will have to have extra stamina for these two weeks and Vermaelen should hope that he can extract his best.fc