Madrid, March 28: FC Barcelona's hopes of winning the La Liga and UEFA Champions League titles have been significantly affected after Raphinha suffered a hamstring injury while playing for Brazil in a friendly match before the World Cup.
The Brazilian Football Confederation confirmed on Friday that Raphinha sustained the injury to his right hamstring during Thursday's 2-1 defeat to France in a friendly. The forward will return to Barcelona for treatment after leaving the Brazilian squad, according to Xinhua.
This is the second time Raphinha has suffered a right hamstring injury this season, having missed almost two months earlier in the campaign.
Barcelona will play away against Atletico Madrid in La Liga on April 4, before hosting Atletico in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal four days later.
After that, Barcelona will host Espanyol in a La Liga derby on April 11 and travel to the Metropolitano Stadium for the Champions League second leg on April 14.
Raphinha has scored 14 goals and provided six assists in 27 appearances in La Liga and the Champions League this season.
Earlier, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid both secured narrow wins before the international break to keep the title race alive in the La Liga 2025-26 season. Barcelona defeated Rayo Vallecano 1-0 while Real Madrid edged out archrivals Atletico Madrid 3-2 in a hard-fought Madrid Derby.
With the league moving towards a decisive phase at both ends of the points table, Barcelona and Real Madrid are separated by four points, with Barcelona leading the standings with 73 points while Real Madrid have 69 points after 29 rounds of matches.
It was felt that the break came at the right time for Barcelona as they looked tired in both their pressing and passing, and Rayo Vallecano created several chances to level after repeatedly beating the home side's high defensive line, only to waste them.
Fortunately for Barcelona, goalkeeper Joan Garcia produced several big saves to justify his first international call-up. Flick hopes the international break helps his players recover after an intense start to 2026. It was also felt that Barca will certainly need to improve, because their first game after the break is away to Atletico, which beat them 4-0 in the Copa del Rey.
However, Raphinha's injury has thrown a spanner in the works, and the club will have to come up with a plan to minimize its impact.