Barcelona has made three signing sessions this summer in Joan Garcia, Roony Bardghji and Marcus Rashford, and moreover they will welcome Marc Bernal again. The 18-year-old midfielder was a revelation in the early stages of last season before he sustained an ACL injury-which he still comes back from.
Bernal has made the trip to Japan and South Korea for the pre-season tour of Barcelona, although he is not expected to play for a few minutes in one of the planned games. Hansi Flick, who counts on the teenager to be a very important player during the coming season, will not take any risks with his recovery.
According to MD, the plan with Bernal is that he may be involved in the Joan Gamper trophy, which takes place a week before the new season starts – although he will not be forced to play again, because this is the most confident prospect of the club about this.
Even if Bernal plays against Como in the Joan Gamper -Trophy, the plan would not be to play competitive matches before the first international break of the season in September. The current idea is that his return to Valencia is to MD4, which is also Barcelona's first home game of the campaign.
If that is the case, this would mean that Bernal, who recently gave an update on his recovery, would be out of operation for more than a year, since he sustained the ACL injury against Rayo Vallecano last August. Barcelona can afford to do things slowly with the teenager, given that they have Pedri, Frenkie de Jong, Marc Casado, Gavi and Eric Garcia as players to play in the two defensive midfield positions in the Flick system.