BARCELONA – The recovery of Philippe Coutinho, injured at the end of 2020 and operated on the external meniscus of his right knee on January 2, is a cause for concern in Barcelona, which almost three months after the intervention does not set any deadline for a reappearance that , at first, was estimated for early April.
Barça have not denied (nor confirmed) TV3’s ESPN reports that the Brazilian underwent surgery a few weeks ago to extract a cyst from the same knee that caused him a lot of discomfort and then decided to travel. in Qatar for consultation with a specialist at the Aspetar clinic.
At Barça, they now do not want to set deadlines when it comes to his recovery, assuming that his return from April is completely ruled out and that, fortunately, he could reappear in the last step of the course, in mid-May. In this way, it is certainly understood that the former Liverpool player will not add the remaining ten games to reach 100 with the Barça shirt and will avoid paying his old club the agreed bonus of 20 million euros agreed when he was signed in January 2018.
Moreover, his future at the Camp Nou is marked with an asterisk, because Joan Laporta’s board of directors, awaiting the coach’s approval, is seriously considering the footballer’s departure at the end of the course, either by one transfer or another. , at least, reduces the payroll of staff and that in his case means more than 25 million euros, gross, per season. In fact, in the savings plan, it could be considered that, although there are more than 50 million amortized since his signing, an agreed exit similar to that of Luis Suárez last summer would have been agreed.
And it is the fact that Coutinho, considered one of the players that the club would not have for the next campaign, began the course with a title in the eyes of Ronald Koeman, finishing the first three days of the League, but after a few annoying first From the classic October, his presence in eleven lost consistency and from his reappearance in November until his injury on December 29, he only entered the starting eleven in five of the nine games played, of which he also did not complete.