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Injury jinx strikes Vermaelen again

Xinhua, September 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

The injury jinx that seems to follow Barcelona defender, Thomas Vermaelen, struck again when he suffered another muscle injury during his side's 2-1 win away to Atletico Madrid on Saturday night.

The central defender, who was first choice for Luis Enrique's side as a result of the four-game ban being served by Gerard Pique, had to limp out of the game after just 25 minutes with an apparant calf problem.

The club has not yet confirmed how long he will be sidelined, but it is likely to be at least three weeks and Vermaelen has a long history of muscle problems which have pursued him over the past three years.

He missed almost all of his debut season with Barcelona after joining fro Arsenal with a troublesome injury which only cleared up in the last month of the campaign.

However, he had begun this season in positive form and had covered well for Pique, who will be able to play in this week's Champions League fixture away to Roma but not in the following home game against Levante.

Dani Alves is also sidelined with a muscle injury which means that Marc Bartra will almost certainly start next weekend when Barca will look to make it four wins out of four in the league. Endi