BARCELONA – The recovery of Philippe Coutinho, injured at the end of 2020 and operated on for an external meniscus of his right knee on January 2, is a cause for concern in Barcelona, which for almost three months after the operation does not set any deadline for a reappearance that was initially estimated for early April.
The Barça club did not deny (nor did it confirm) to ESPN a TV3 report according to which the Brazilian was operated on again a few weeks ago to remove a cyst from his knee that caused him a lot of discomfort and after which decided to travel to Qatar to consult with a specialist at the Aspetar clinic.
Barça do not want to set deadlines now when referring to their recovery, assuming that their return in April is completely ruled out and that, hopefully, they could reappear in the final stretch of the season. in mid-May. In this way it is understood that the former Liverpool player will not add the ten games he needs to reach the 100 with the Barça shirt and will avoid having to pay his former club the established bonus of 20 million of euros agreed when he was signed in January 2018.
Moreover, his future at the Camp Nou is marked with an asterisk, as the management of Joan Laporta, awaiting the approval of the coach, seriously considers the departure of the footballer at the end of the year, either through of a transfer or other assignment to, at least, reduce the payroll of the workforce and that, if applicable, means more than 25 million euros, gross, per season. In fact, in the savings plan, it could be considered that there are still more than 50 million left to repay from his signing if an agreed exit similar to that of Luis Suárez was agreed last summer.
And it is that Coutinho, considered one of the players with whom the club would not have in the face of the next campaign, began the course with the consideration of titular in the eyes of Ronald Koeman completing the first three days of League, but after some first annoyances from the October Classic his presence at 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 matches played, of which he also did not complete any.