A season filled with serious injuries for Barcelona took another dark turn during Wednesday’s Copa del Rey defeat against Athletic Bilbao when left-back Alejandro Balde was forced to leave early in the first half with a hamstring injury in his right leg.
The injury looked serious from the moment Balde first went down, and his reaction and mood throughout his examination and his departure from the pitch showed a young man very worried about his situation.
Reports since Wednesday say Balde is facing a dilemma similar to the one Marc-André ter Stegen and Marcos Alonso faced with their respective back injuries: go the conservative treatment route in hopes of returning to action quicker or undergoing surgery to fix the problem permanently and spending a longer period on the sideline.