Credit to
@RkkMan
Below is according to a report from L'Equipe.
"What is striking is that the fact that until he signed for Barcelona for 145 million euros in 2017, Dembélé had never suffered an injury. Now, an in-depth
L'Equipe report has focused on his private life and the reasons that may have led to his current injury crisis".
But despite the lifestyle changes, one gaping issue remains: he continues to pick up injuries at Barcelona after never having suffered an injury at either Rennes or Dortmund. This has led
L'Equipe to highlight Barcelona's training methods as the reasons for his injuries.
Data retrieved from Dembélé's GPS monitor by the Aspetar Clinic in Doha, where the player has previously been treated, revealed something important. In training,
only 20% of the time he is involved in plays was spent sprinting, while in matches that figure rose to a staggering 90%, which could suggest that the demands in games are beyond him.
In that sense, it is argued in the
L'Equipe report that Dembélé's sprinter-type profile is not compatible with Barcelona's training methods, meaning when the demand significantly increases on him to sprint in matches he is more prone to injuries.
Speaking to
L'Equipe, Michel Troin, the current assistant to Philippe Montanier at Monaco, who previously worked with Dembélé at Rennes, explained that: "There are club cultures that do not match the needs of the players they recruit." The report also cites the case of Frenkie de Jong, who, after moving from Ajax to Barcelona, had to hire a personal trainer during his first week to help him cope with the extra workload.
L'Equipe claim that a representative from Barcelona recognised that the club was responsible for Dembélé's chain of injures but the Catalan outfit were not prepared to admit blame publically. The French newspaper reports that a Barça executive even contacted his counterpart in Dortmund to try to understand the reasons why Dembélé had no muscle problems while in Germany.
The report ends with more statements from Michel Torin, in which he blames Barcelona for his current injuries woes:
"Ousmane is not responsible for his situation. He is the victim of a precocious talent. At Rennes we had huge pressure on training and matches, only we didn't kill him.
"If you see the photos, his bone development had not finished; he still had growing to do. There was a rush to make him play because he is a phenomenon and now he is paying for it."