Barcelona has been given a blow in their preparations for their title defense, because they will start it without their top scorer. It has been confirmed that Robert Lewandowski has sustained a muscle injury.
The 36-year-old has picked up a thigh trunk and is excluded from their Joan Gamper Trophy collision with Como on Sunday evening. Player Dani Olmo also trained individually because of his own small tribe, while Hansi Flick continues his preparations for the new season.
The injury looks like it will keep him out of their La Liga opener with RCD Mallorca in eight days. Xavi Hernandez Navarro, who writes for ARA, has explained that his injury could keep him out for a total of two weeks. That would definitively exclude him from the Blaugrana trip to the island, and he would be touch and go for their second League match the following weekend against Levante along the east coast, a week later.
The most important candidate to replace Lewandowski will be Ferran Torres, who was their alternative last season, and was given a starting role against Inter in the semi-final of the Champions League and against Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey-final. Earlier it was reported that Torres will even invoice Lewandowski this season and the start could become nine if it performs better than the Polish Vooruit.
Furthermore, it has also been spoken that OLMO can sometimes be used as a false nine this season. Marcus Rashford is also an alternative to Hansi Flick, who has played a number of times through the middle. That said, the Manchester United attacker in loan is still waiting to be registered for the coming season, and there is no certainty about when that will happen.