Jamaica Gleaner

Barca to live without Suárez for four weeks

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BARCELONA, Spain (AP): AFTER LOSING Neymar for good, Barcelona will also face the first month of the Spanish league season without Luis Suarez.

Barcelona said on Thursday that Suárez will be sidelined for four weeks after medical tests revealed a knee injury in his right leg.

That will rule him of tomorrow’s league opener against Real Betis, and the following matches against Alaves and Espnayol. The club said he could also miss the match again Getafe after the internatio­nal break.

Suarez was injured in the final minutes of Wednesday’s 2-0 loss at Real Madrid in the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup. After running into goalkeeper Keylor Navas, Suarez writhed in pain but remained in the game and was limping by the final whistle. Madrid won 5-1 on aggregate.

Suarez has scored 148 goals in the Spanish league, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey in his three seasons at Barcelona. He led the Spanish league in scoring with 40 goals in 2015-16.

Barcelona are planning to rely on the 30-year-old Suárez to keep up that level of production to help Lionel Messi overcome the loss of Brazil striker Neymar, who bolted for Paris Saint-Germain on a worldrecor­d transfer earlier this month.

Barcelona struggled to produce goals without Neymar in their Super Cup loss to Madrid.

The injury is also a blow for Uruguay, with Suárez set to miss its next two World Cup qualifiers on August 31 against Argentina and September 5 at Paraguay. Uruguay are currently third in the South American qualifying group, tied on points with Chile and one point ahead of Argentina. The top four finishers qualify for the 2018 World Cup, while the fifth-place team enters a play-off.

Barcelona also said that defender Gerard Pique, who was substitute­d during the second half of Wednesday’s match, has a muscle injury in his left leg. It said the speed of his recovery will determine if he can play against Betis.

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