Barcelona defender ruled out of Elche clash due to Achilles injury

Barcelona released their official squad for the upcoming La Liga game against Elche which will take place at Camp Nou on Saturday afternoon. Manager Xavi Hernandez has an almost full-strength squad at his disposal, with just one player missing out of action.

The Barça star sidelined for the visit is one of the club captains, Sergi Roberto. And as reported by Javi Miguel of AS, the 30-year-old is ruled out due to discomfort in the Achilles.

The veteran defender has been plagued by injuries in recent years and missed a large part of the last season due to the same. However, he had looked good in the ongoing campaign, making the most of whatever chances came his way.

But unfortunately for Roberto, he has picked up another injury that will keep him out of action on Saturday.

However, the report adds that the condition of his issue is not very major and the two-week international break coming up after this weekend’s fixtures should be enough for the La Masia graduate to recover completely.

Roberto had already missed the last La Liga encounter against Cadiz due to muscular discomfort while he was not selected in the matchday squad for the midweek encounter against Bayern Munich either.

The versatile star, who signed a new one-year contract with Barça this past summer, has played five times across all competitions so far this term and has one goal and one assist each to show for his efforts.

Barcelona have Hector Bellerin as an option at right-back while both Jules Kounde and Ronald Araujo have also been used in the position by Xavi so far this season. So, Roberto’s absence is unlikely to be felt by the Blaugrana when they play hosts to Elche on Saturday.