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This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Injuries are never a good thing, that much is pretty obvious. And when you’re Barcelona and a certain Lionel Messi suffers a thigh injury, the alarm bells usually start to ring.
However, the Catalan club could have a silver lining in the form of Ansu Fati.
On the chalkboard
Messi has been extremely unlucky with injuries this season.
The 32-year-old Argentina international suffered a foot injury in pre-season and subsequently missed the first four matches of the ongoing 2019/20 La Liga campaign.
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He came off the bench in the 2-0 defeat to Granada but finally got his first start of the season against Villarreal. However, it didn’t last.
At the half-time mark, Messi was replaced by Ousmane Dembele.
After the game, Ernesto Valverde confirmed what everyone was dreading – he sustained a “small problem in the adductor” – and Barcelona have now declared their star man is out, without giving a time scale on his return.
Fati’s time to shine
Maybe it sounds unusual but Barcelona could really be about to put their faith in a 16-year-old boy. And the best thing about that? It’s completely justified.
Fati has already scored twice and registered an assist in La Liga and he also made a cameo appearance against Villarreal, replacing a struggling Luis Suarez in the final stretch of the game.
And in a rather unsurprising turn of events, Fati lit up Camp Nou.
He registered one shot, two dribbles, 83.3% passing accuracy and was fouled once in the short amount of time he spent on the pitch.
Suarez, by comparison, had just one shot in 77 minutes, one dribble and a passing accuracy of just 79.3%.
With Messi now injured and seemingly out of commission against Getafe, Fati could be the ideal replacement. He’s in exceptional form and is clearly champing at the bit to prove his worth.
Could this injury to Barcelona’s legendary ace actually be a blessing in disguise and Fati’s coming-of-age party?
It just might…
