Major concerns over Frenkie de Jong: ‘He is completely distraught’

Frenkie de Jong has suffered another setback. The midfielder is recovering from a knee injury, but the process is not going smoothly at the moment. That is according to Diario AS.

De Jong returned to FC Barcelona from his holiday with knee problems. He had picked them up at the World Cup with the Netherlands, where he played the last three matches in pain after a wrong diagnosis by the KNVB medical staff.

Tests in Barcelona showed De Jong has a tear in the medial collateral ligament in his right knee. The club advised him to undergo surgery, but De Jong chose conservative treatment instead. He has now hit fresh problems in his recovery.

Last week, De Jong returned to the training pitch for a series of stability tests, but the results were not positive. According to Diario AS, De Jong left the pitch ‘completely distraught’.

Following that initial setback, Barcelona have stepped up the pressure on De Jong again. The club once more advised him to choose surgery, and surgeon Joan Carlos Monllau also spoke with the Dutchman to recommend an operation as the best solution. De Jong, however, is sticking to his decision and wants to exhaust every possibility of conservative treatment at all costs.

By doing that, the midfielder is going directly against the wishes of the club doctors. Barcelona are convinced surgery is the only way to prevent a new injury, with the previous cases of Samuel Umtiti and Ansu Fati among those being cited. De Jong, though, wants nothing to do with that, partly because he knows an operation would be expected to cost him about three quarters of the season.

Now Barcelona are starting to run out of time. Initially, four weeks were to be set aside to assess whether the conservative treatment had had any effect, but more than six weeks have now passed without the situation changing in any meaningful way. The frustration is continuing to grow.