Vermaelen Suffering Injury

 

Jeremy Mathieu and Thomas Vermaelen have been the only defenders that Barcelona has signed so far during this transfer window but the Spanish club has received disappointing news concerning their Belgium acquisition Vermaelen as he will not be able to train with his new club and teammates as he is suffering from an injury.

Thomas Vermaelen picked up this injury during the 2014 World cup when Belgium played against Russia and ever since then; Vermaelen has not managed to perform a single match. According to the medical staff of Barcelona, he should be able to play in official league games for his new club in around 2 weeks.

Injuries is a factor that has always troubled Vermaelen as he was only able to make 14 league appearances for Arsenal during the past season as well as losing his place in the starting lineup of Arsene Wenger to Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny.

Vermaelen was also limited on only making 1 appearance for his country Belgium in the World Cup due to his continuous struggles with fitness.

2 weeks out of action isn’t such a high amount of matches or significantly long period of time but this may be a sign of what’s to come for the Belgium defender. Vermaelen is a player that can offer calm and leadership presence for Barcelona but his injuries is something that Luis Enrique will have to consider before putting him in certain matches.

Only time will tell if Barcelona’s decision to sign Vermaelen was a good one or a bad one as the player is a gamble but having paid €15 million for the experienced defender is a costly gamble and especially more for a club that doesn’t have much liberty of risking games and losing points in their journey of not only winning the Spanish League but also the Champions League as well.