5 problems that threatened Barcelona this season

#2 Ousmane Dembele's injury woes

Dembele endured injury nightmares

Barcelona thought they had signed an immediate replacement for Neymar when they bought Ousmane Dembele from Dortmund in the summer. Unfortunately for them, things did not go as expected.

The winger suffered a terrible injury in his first La Liga start when Barcelona faced Getafe at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez stadium. He picked up the injury when he was trying to back-heel the ball near the corner flag. Dembele raised his hands immediately and sat on the ground, pointing to the back of his leg. He then walked off the pitch and was replaced by Gerard Deulofeu in the 29th minute.

After several tests were conducted, the Catalans reported that the attacker had suffered a hamstring injury in his left leg, and was expected to miss 6-8 weeks of action. This was a big blow to Barcelona, but the club was able to cope with his absence, with Ernesto Valverde forced to switch to the 4-4-2 formation instead.

About 7 weeks later, Dembele returned from his setback. The 20-year old came off the bench to replace Paulinho in the 65th minute as Barca faced Real Sociedad in a La Liga match. Even though the player managed to finish the match, he picked up another injury, suffering a fibrillar rupture to his left thigh.

These occurrences dealt big blows to the club as they waited to reap from their €105 million investment, however, Dembele has put his injury problems behind and has shown promising signs.

He still has a lot to prove at the club, though.