Injured Barcelona captain to learn his potential date of return later this month

Barcelona’s Marc-Andre ter Stegen suffered a complete rupture of his patellar ligament in September last year and has been working hard to return at the earliest ever since.

While he was initially expected to be out for the entire season, subsequent progress revealed that the player is recovering faster than expected and that his participation towards the end of the season is not ruled out.

Ter Stegen, for his part, looks up to the example of Thibaut Courtois who returned from a gruesome injury to feature in the business end of Real Madrid’s season last year and even played in the UEFA Champions League final.

Date to be set

While the German’s recovery is indeed going well and he is already working on the pitch, it is too early to give a date for his potential return. Clarity, however, is just around the corner.

As revealed by Mundo Deportivo, Ter Stegen undergoes weekly reviews where he monitors his progress and work.

He is currently working towards hitting the set deadlines, but it is expected that the medical staff can provide a probable date for his return to the field after the review at the end of March.

Barcelona unsurprisingly prefer to err on the side of caution and will want the captain to be at his 100% before he returns to the field.

The judgement will thus be crucial and the medical staff’s reading could decide if they push for him to return this season or directly for the next one.

In a recent interview, the German international stated that he was fine and working towards returning before the campaign ended.

From Hansi Flick’s perspective, there is little reason to hurry the player’s return as Wojciech Szczesny has hit the ground running and looks more comfortable than ever before.

His record in recent games has been promising and everything points to him continuing as the mainstay this season.