Madrid (AFP)

French striker FC Barcelona Antoine Griezmann suffers a muscular injury to the quadriceps must, announced his club on Sunday, and will miss the last week of Liga, even the 8th final of the Champions League return against Naples on August 8.

"The examinations carried out this (Sunday) morning showed that the player of the first team Antoine Griezmann suffers from a muscular injury to the quadriceps of the right leg", specifies Barça in a press release.

"Its availability will depend on its evolution," simply added the Catalan club, which has only two Liga matches to play against Osasuna on Thursday (19:00 GMT) and Alavés on Sunday (19:00 GMT), with still a slight hope of keep their national crown in the event of repeated missteps by the leader, Real Madrid.

According to the Catalan specialist media Mundo Deportivo, the objective of Barça is that it is able to participate in the knockout round of the Champions League against Naples at Camp Nou, August 8 (19:00 GMT).

The French striker was released at half-time from Barça's Valladolid match on Saturday, replaced by Uruguayan Luis Suarez.

"He left because he felt embarrassed, he asked to leave. We'll see what he has," alerted coach Quique Setién Saturday evening at a press conference.

A huge blow for "Grizou": the French world champion (29 years old, 78 caps), who arrived last summer at Barça for five years and 120 M EUR from Atlético Madrid, was just starting to show the extent of his talent in Catalonia.

Griezmann (15 goals and 4 assists in 46 games in all competitions at Barça this season) notably scored a magnificent goal against Villarreal (45th) last Sunday (4-1), and served a heeling of genius for the goal of Luis Suarez (56th) against Espanyol, Wednesday (1-0).

A good way to end the controversy born a few days earlier of his entry into play in the 90th minute of the match of Barça against his former team, Atlético Madrid (2-2) on June 30.

© 2020 AFP