The crisis deepens and Flick is in trouble: Barcelona player to miss Alaves clash

Hansi Flick has been dealt a blow ahead of Barcelona's clash with Deportivo Alavés at the Spotify Camp Nou next Saturday.

A string of recent injuries has left Barcelona staring at a full-blown defensive crisis, with Marc Casadó now confirmed out for around seven weeks.

According to "Mundo Deportivo", the mood was optimistic at the start of the week about Jules Koundé's return. That optimism has faded. The French defender's ankle has not healed enough after the sprain he picked up against Betis ten days ago, and he is now ruled out of the Alavés game.

Koundé missed both of Barcelona's defeats to Paris Saint-Germain (4-2) in the Champions League and Real Madrid (1-2) in La Liga through that same injury. The plan had been for him to rejoin the group midweek and be ready for Alavés.

That plan unravelled. He felt discomfort just pulling on his boot on Wednesday and trained away from the group. By Thursday, with the match looming, everyone agreed he should sit it out rather than risk making the problem worse.

With Eric García, Andreas Christensen and Casadó also sidelined, Koundé's fitness mattered to Flick. Instead, he must face Alavés with only João Cancelo, Pau Cubarsí, Gerard Martín and Alejandro Balde available at the back.

Shifting Bryan Gil to right-back is one way to shuffle the pack. Flick could also, less likely, deploy Rodri or even Frenkie de Jong at centre-back.

Álex Campos, the 18-year-old centre-back from the reserves, has trained with the first team in recent days with a squad place in mind.