The collapse of Raphinha

BarcelonaThe layoff prognosis for Raphinha Dias after tearing the same muscle for the third time this season is five weeks. This is the prediction of Barça's medical services, officially communicated last Friday evening, after evaluating the footballer thousands of kilometers away. There were no more diagnostic elements than the tests ordered by the Brazilian national team and the sensations of theblaugrana forward himself, who, a few hours after being substituted by Carlo Ancelotti at halftime of a friendly against France due to "discomfort", already conveyed that he was "broken". There will be no examination at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, with the instruments and knowledge of the club's professionals, until the beginning of next week, when Raphinha is expected to leave the refuge of his people to return to Barcelona.

If the player has skipped the internal protocols foreseen for these cases, it is because he has collapsed at the decisive moment of the season. Initially, Barça expected him to return to Europe at the beginning of this week and that until he started treatment in Catalonia, he would control the muscle inflammation with ice and rest. However, Raphinha asked for more time to be with his family in Brazil. Hansi Flick and Deco, after an intense internal deliberation, decided to grant it to him, thinking more about the mental part than the physical one. Nevertheless, while he recovers mentally from the blow, the blaugrana attacker has also started working with a physiotherapist he trusts, which once again confirms that part of the locker room does not trust the advice and recovery guidelines designed by the current staff

and opts to place himself in the hands of external specialists paid out of his own pocket.

Type of recurring injuries and relapses in the same area, and aware that if he doesn't fully clear it, he could miss a World Cup in which he expects to be very important for the canarinha, Raphinha has taken the bull by the horns when it comes to approaching his recovery. It's raining on wet ground with the player who was the first to raise his hand this season with injury management. After getting injured at the end of September and relapsing twice when they tried to force him during October, he managed to get the head of the physical trainers, Julio Tous, to stop directing the players' readaptations. His reappearance at the end of November improved the team's performance under Flick, but it didn't mean he started believing in the club's professionals again. In fact, in January he strung together three matches with discomfort that wasn't accompanied by any medical report, and in February he was one of the most belligerent in a plea from the players to the German coach for training sessions to have more strength work.

"We have to see what we have to change and what he has to change," Flick maintained a few weeks ago, who even today refuses to blame just one person for Raphinha's problems, a player as central to his system as Pedri or Lamine Yamal. Where the Canarian midfielder administers calm and the Mataró winger invokes magic, the Brazilian attacker unleashes his hunger through tireless pressure and constant threat in space. "There is a Barça with Raphinha and another Barça without him," former Barça player Ivan Rakitić declared a few days ago, aware of the virtues of a footballer who last season earned merits to win the Ballon d'Or and who this season has maintained his aura whenever injuries have allowed him. 19 goals and 7 assists back him up in just 31 appearances. But it is in the intangibles where he truly makes the difference compared to the inconsistent Marcus Rashford, who on paper is called upon to fill his void throughout April, when Europe's major clubs are fighting for everything.