Carles Miñarro, Barça's "doc": a discreet and hard-working man

BarcelonaConsternation in the Barça dressing room due to the sudden death, victim of a heart attack this Saturday, a few hours before the league match at Montjuïc against Osasuna, by Dr. Carles Miñarro Garcia. He was 53 years old and had been working at the Barcelona club for seven years. This season he had joined thestaff The right-hand man of the team's medical director, Ricard Pruna, replaced Xavier Valle, who was fired last summer after twenty years at the club. The sad news was communicated by the Barça executive president, Joan Laporta, to the players, who asked for the match to be suspended because they were not in a condition to face it. A date for the match to be played remains to be found, but this is not the priority right now for the dressing room, which will compete in the Champions League against Benfica again on Tuesday.

Although this was only his first year in the first team, Miñarro was a much-loved man in Sant Joan Despí. A graduate in medicine with a speciality in traumatology from the Rovira i Virgili University (URV), he joined Barça in 2017, signed by the then head doctor Ramon Canal. Currently, he combines his work in the Barcelona first team, which means he has to travel often, with the Institut Arqué. At Barça, before arriving atstaff Hansi Flick's team, he has accumulated merits above all in the futsal section, where he participated, for example, in the multiple knee recoveries of Sergio Lozano. Previously he had accumulated experience in the CAR of Sant Cugat, in CE Sabadell, in Terrassa FC and in UE Sant Andreu. Outside of sports medicine he was an assistant in traumatology emergencies at the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona between 2002 and 2005.

"We can't believe it. Rest in peace, Doc. Lots of strength to the family and friends," wrote Ronald Araujo on his social networks. The Uruguayan center back, injured in the thigh for months, had connected with Miñarro, whom he affectionately called Doc as an abbreviation for doctor. This nickname went viral during the sequence of the concussion that Pablo Gavi suffered in the first minutes of a match against Alavés in Montjuïc, now a month old. Araujo urged the Andalusian to pay attention to Miñarro, who in turn examined Gavi and asked him what day it was and what time it was. The match was underway. As the player's answers were not convincing, the doctor in charge of the on-field treatment that day quickly diagnosed that Gavi had a concussion and could not continue on the pitch. Flick changed his mind without opening any debate.

A doctor away from the spotlight

Smiling, discreet, helpful and the father of two children – Anna and Gerard – Miñarro leaves a fond memory in the changing rooms that knew him. The void will be difficult to repair for Dr Pruna, who had recently relied on his knowledge, and also for the team of physiotherapists and physical trainers who look after the health of the Barça players and who in recent weeks celebrated the absence of muscle injuries at these crucial moments of the season. He was a club man, a team player convinced that achievements were collective. "A professional player is lucky to have a doctor, physiotherapists, rehabilitation specialists, physical trainers... and he also has external doctors. In other words, he has a whole team around him to be able to recover well. While he is injured, the player is never standing still, but moving," he declared in a recent interview in the school magazine.Encina ReportThis is the media spotlight Miñarro was looking for. None.

Rest in peace, Doc.