Three weeks before the World Cup in Qatar (November 20 - December 18), the Blues infirmary continues to fill up.

FC Barcelona French international defender Jules Koundé was hit in the left thigh against Valencia on Saturday, but "nothing serious" according to him.

Koundé (23, 12 caps), holder of the France team in recent months, sat for several minutes on the lawn of Mestalla in Valencia, holding the back of his left thigh, then gave way, grimacing to Gerard Pique.

A reassuring celebration

“Koundé made a big effort to reduce the recovery time (from his previous injury), because we needed him.

We tried to change him when he felt muscle discomfort.

Looks like it's not an injury, it's a big pain.

We hope it's not an injury,” Xavi told Spanish channel DAZN after the final whistle.

A reassuring sign for the Catalan coach, the Frenchman did not seem embarrassed to celebrate Robert Lewandowski's winning goal: a Barça video shows him coming off the bench at full speed.

"I think it's nothing serious, just a (muscular) overload", reacted the defender on DAZN, before openly criticizing the dense schedules of this atypical season.

“They should think a bit more about the players.

There are a lot of matches.

We are slipping on a somewhat crazy path, wanting to play so many matches… But those from above are not worried about it, obviously”.

This muscular alert has undoubtedly caused some alarm to sound within the management of the Blues, already largely diminished by injuries in recent days.

One of the executives of the world champions, Raphaël Varane, injured in a thigh, will not play again before the World Cup.

Lucas Hernandez (Bayern Munich) is in the recovery phase and Paul Pogba, who has started a race against time to compete in the World Cup, has "partially" resumed collective training with Juventus, but will probably not play a match before the tournament.

As for N'Golo Kanté, part of the last World Cup, he is already forfeited.

Already an injury on September 22

Koundé, transferred to Barcelona this summer from Sevilla FC for 50 million euros, has already suffered a left thigh injury this season: on September 22, he had to give up his place with the Blues in the first half of the match against Austria (2-0), suffering from a "lesion to the biceps femoris of the left thigh".

He regained his starting place for the clasico, which the Catalans lost 3-1 on October 16.

In total, he has ten games this season.

Saturday, the meeting was unfortunately prolific in injuries: the Uruguayan international striker of Valencia Edinson Cavani gave up his place in the 18th minute to Marcos André, visibly injured in the right ankle, then the Catalan defender of Barça Eric Garcia abandoned the ground in the 42nd, replaced by Marcos Alonso.

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