Oriol Romeu’s form has dipped in recent weeks after a promising start to his second stay with Barcelona.
Barça signed the 32-year-old midfielder from Girona in a deal for close to €4 million during the summer transfer window.
The La Masia graduate enjoyed a strong start to the season after returning to his childhood club, but his play has dipped significantly in recent outings.
Dealing with knee pain
Amidst this, Toni Juanmarti of SPORT (h/t Barçacentre) has come up with an interesting bit of information regarding Romeu and some fitness problems that the veteran midfielder is dealing with.
As per the update, the former Chelsea and Southampton midfielder suffers from pain in his knee whenever he accumulates more minutes on the pitch.
It might have something to do with the dip in Romeu’s performance levels in recent weeks, which even led to his exclusion from the starting XI against Real Madrid this past Saturday.
Even after he came on as a substitute, the Spaniard had some difficulty keeping up with Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham in the lead-up to their match-winning goal in stoppage time.
Barcelona have already had to deal with several injury problems this season and Romeu’s alleged knee issue will be a concern for Xavi & co.
A new signing in January?
As such, reports suggest that even though finances are not in the pinkest of health, Barcelona will go for a pivot midfielder during the January transfer window.
The defensive midfield position is the only spot in the squad that does not have two players in the first-team squad.
Xavi has been utilising the likes of Ilkay Gundogan, Marc Casado, and even Gavi in the deeper role, and the club could continue to test the latter option even more.
However, at the same time, the technical staff has already begun looking into the possibility of signing a new pivot come January.