Just one day after losing Pedri to a serious knee injury in Spain duty that could rule him out for the start of next season, Barcelona have suffered yet another huge injury blow to one of their stars in international duty, this time in the United States during the 2024 Copa America.
Uruguay and Brazil were 30 minutes into their quarter-final clash when Ronald Araujo went down with an apparent hamstring injury, and the Barça man was quickly examined and ruled out, leaving the pitch in tears as he was replaced by José Giménez.
Araujo went into the Uruguay camp already struggling with an injury that caused him to miss most of the final month of Barça’s 2023-24 season, and while we don’t know the extent of this new injury there is at least a chance Araujo won’t be involved at the start of Barça’s next campaign.
New manager Hansi Flick is already dealing with the expected injury absences of Frenkie de Jong, Gavi and Pedri for the start of pre-season as well as several other players involved in summer commitments for their national teams both at the senior and Olympic level, and it looks like Araujo will be yet another name added to the list of key starters not available for the beginning of Flick’s tenure.