In his debut season at Barcelona, Ansu Fati won the hearts of an entire
Barcelona fan base Supporters pinned their hopes on the then 16-year-old,
who was a bright spark in an otherwise gloomy period.
Fati’s career could not have got off to a better start,
and it seemed as if he would go from strength to strength for Barca.
It hasn’t happened yet – why?
That strong start was interrupted in November 2020.
Barca were hosting Real Betis and half an hour into the game Fati’s knee turned
sharply in a tackle. He had ruptured the inner meniscus in his left knee.
The procedure used to treat Fati’s injury made sense for his age. He went to Dr Ramon Cugat,
an internationally renowned expert in orthopaedic surgery and trauma medicine, who specialises in
the world of sport. Cugat has worked on many players, including Sergio Aguero, Pep Guardiola,
Xavi, Carles Puyol, Alexis Sanchez, Vincent Kompany and Fernando Torres, to name a few.
Cugat sutured the player’s torn meniscus — making a stitch to join together the open
parts of a wound — in a first operation that consisted of trying to keep the meniscus intact.
Fati spent 10 days recovering, doing one session a day at Dr Cugat’s centre.
According to reporting by The Athletic and a source close to Dr Cugat,
Fati returned to Barca after 10 days and they took charge of his rehabilitation. The source
added that Fati called the doctor a few weeks later to tell him his knee had become inflamed.
The forward told him that with Barca he was undergoing two recovery sessions per day — one
more than he was supposed to. Former employees at Barca who were responsible for Fati’s recovery
did not respond when approached for comment by The Athletic, neither did Fati’s family.
After two months, Fati returned to the operating theatre for a
second operation, which was another suture.
Fati was due to return to the field in the spring of 2021,
but instead he had a third operation on his knee. He went to Madrid to continue his recovery and,
two months later, he underwent a meniscectomy — where the affected
part of his meniscus was removed. It was his fourth operation in six months.
Fati would make his return to the pitch on September 26, 2021,
against Levante and he did so in style, scoring the final goal in a 3-0 win.
He would play six more games. Just over a month later, the forward suffered another
injury against Celta Vigo. It was an injury in the biceps femoris of his left thigh — meaning
two more months on the sidelines. He returned for the semi-finals of the Supercopa de Espana
against Real Madrid in January 2022 and it took him just 17 minutes to score.
However, against Athletic Bilbao later that month,
he suffered a hamstring injury. Although the club asked the player to undergo surgery,
he wanted to follow a more conventional treatment rather than go under the knife again.
Physiotherapist Lluis Puig has an explanation for why his game has dropped off since then:
“One possible hypothesis as to why he re-injured the biceps femoris of
the contralateral leg on which he had the knee operation could be because
he unconsciously compensated more with this leg and the rest of his body. That is to say,
asking much more effort from the non-operated leg of the knee.”
For the physiotherapist, the key is Fati gaining confidence. He
says it is a question of time, not reinvention.
So, what next?
It is difficult to see the attacking spark he originally possessed. Whether
that’s because of psychological issues or because his physique is different,
Fati does not appear to be the same player.
His role has also diminished in the seasons since his injury. This season
he has played in every game in La Liga, but he has only started in five of those.
In the Champions League, he has also played every game, but only started the two group-stage
games against Viktoria Plzen. He also only played the full 90 minutes in one of those matches.
Fati’s pre and post-injury attacking stats in La Liga tell an interesting story. His goals,
expected goals and assists per 90 minutes have all risen since his injury,
but his expected assists, attempted dribbles and successful dribbles per
90 have fallen. That could show how Fati is focusing on becoming more of a finisher
rather than the dribbler he appeared to be when he first broke through.
His situation has been replicated internationally. Once one of the great hopes of the Spanish
national team, now he cuts a more peripheral figure. He was eventually selected for the 2022
World Cup, but was used only sparingly by Luis Enrique. And when he was on the pitch in Qatar,
he was unable to change the dynamic of games in which Spain seemed destined for defeat.
Fati’s future, then, is uncertain.
His Barcelona contract runs until June 2027, although some Spanish media outlets reported
that the club wanted to sell him in the summer of 2021 for a price of €100million.
Barca looking to sell him next summer is not out of the question, given his lack of
prominence under Xavi, the price at which he was once valued and the club’s economic situation.
That is a prospect which is officially denied by the club and which obviously
depends on whether he regains his confidence and can finally remain free of injury.
Only time will tell.