Balde's injury mystery solved: a gym blunder behind Barca's latest headache
Reading Time: 2min | Mon. 24.11.25. | 15:22
A misused machine, bad advice and a month on the sidelines. Barcelona rethink their entire fitness setup after the left-back's bizarre setback
Barcelona's season has already been scarred by a brutal injury list - 12 first-team players sidelined, key fixtures missed, rhythm constantly disrupted. But perhaps the most frustrating setback of all was Alejandro Balde's.
The 22-year-old left-back, an undisputed starter and one of Barca's most reliable outlets, spent a month out after a hamstring problem in early September. He missed clashes with Valencia, Newcastle, Getafe, Real Oviedo and Real Sociedad.
Now, it turns out the entire episode could have been avoided.
According to The Athletic, Balde suffered the injury because he "used a piece of gym equipment incorrectly", after being misadvised in a session overseen by Julio Tous' fitness team. The defender was reportedly furious, feeling the mistake was not his own - just another case in a series of mishaps under the club's increasingly questioned conditioning staff.
He was not alone. Lamine Yamal also suffered issues traced back to the same group, which eventually forced Barcelona to act. The club has now reverted to last season's fitness protocols, sidelining Tous and reshaping how injury recovery is managed in a bid to stop the bleeding.
The good news? Balde has been back for almost two months and looks stable again - a major relief with crucial fixtures looming before the winter break.
Still, injuries remain a shadow over Hansi Flick's squad: Joan Garcia, Pedri, Raphinha and others have all spent time in the treatment room. Flick hopes the internal reset will finally offer some consistency, but the coming weeks will decide whether Barcelona have truly solved the problem… or simply delayed the next crisis.
