Injuries leave Barcelona short staffed for Sevilla match

The next couple of weeks are going to be crucial for Barcelona when it comes to their hopes of winning any silverware this season. A tough match against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey will set things off.

For Ronald Koeman and the club, they are set to face some of these challenges with a depleted squad. Barcelona released their squad list for the Sevilla match with three notable absences. Miralem Pjanic, Sergiño Dest, and Martin Braithwaite were left off the list because of injuries.

Dest has been struggling with a thigh injury since January and despite returning to the side a few weeks ago, he’s been used sparingly. Against Real Betis, when Ronald Araujo got injured, Koeman opted for Frenkie de Jong rather than using Dest and sliding Oscar Mingueza to the center of defense.

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As far as the other two players are concerned, according to Sport, Pjanic has pain in his left foot and Braithwaite picked up a hamstring injury.

Both players started in the match against Betis. The bright spot, if there is any, is that these three players were not starting week in, week out.

However, they still are important squad players that Koeman has counted on to varying degrees. Out of the three, the injury to Dest has the most significant impact.

Without the right-back, they lose the option of playing Mingueza at center-back. The club is already stretched thin in that position as it is. They may be forced to play De Jong in defense, which takes away arguably their most important player in midfield.

The fixture list is piling up for Barcelona and it seems like players are falling left and right. To make up the numbers for the Sevilla game, Koeman called up three players from the Barça B squad.

That may be good enough for this match and the next league match, at home, against Alavés. But it will be another case entirely in the Champions League against PSG.