Dembele injury blow removes gloss as Barca fight back to snatch victory
BARCELONA’S Ousmane Dembele (pictured) is to undergo surgery on a hamstring injury which will keep him out for at least three months.
The big-money signing sustained the injury in the first half of Barca’s come-from-behind win at Getafe on Saturday – his LaLiga debut.
The club confirmed the 20-year-old, a £96.8m buy from Borussia Dortmund last month, will undergo surgery on the injury and could be sidelined until next year as a result.
A statement read: “The tests have come back following Ousmane Dembele’s injury in the 29th minute.
“Unfortunately, he has ruptured the tendon in his femoral bicep in his left thigh.
“The player will be operated on by Dr Sakari Orava in Finland this week.
“He is expected to be out for between three and a half months and four months.”
SNATCHED
Another new signing, Paulinho, scored the winner as Barca snatched a late win over Getafe, to keep his side top of La Liga.
Antoine Griezmann’s goal shortly after the hour mark was enough for Atletico Madrid to seal a 1-0 win over Malaga.
Real Madrid ensured that they didn’t lose further ground on the Barca as they won 3-1 away to Real Sociedad.
Cristiano Ronaldo was suspended but Real cruised to victory, with Gareth Bale silencing some of his critics by scoring his side’s third goal.
Elsewhere, braces from Maximilian Philipp and PierreEmerick Aubameyang took Borussia Dortmund top of the Bundesliga table as they beat Cologne 5-0 at Signal Iduna Park.
Philipp flashed a header from Andriy Yarmolenko into the Cologne net before Sokratis Papastathopoulos made it 2-0, with the help of the video referee, after he had initially been adjudged to have pushed Timo Horn before poking in to the net when the goalkeeper dropped the ball.
Aubameyang then scored twice in a minute, the first from the penalty spot, before Philipp added a fifth as Dortmund moved on to 10 points from their four fixtures so far, with Cologne remaining pointless having scored just one goal.
In France, Mario Balotelli – who struck twice against Monaco last weekend and also scored in the midweek Europa League win at Zulte-Waregem – grabbed the only goal in Nice’s 1-0 win at Rennes.