Barcelona design anti-injury plan for fan-favourite star, Xavi sets challenges for him

Barcelona have not seen a lot of success in recent years, but now appear to be on the right track after winning the La Liga title and the Spanish Super Cup last season under Xavi Hernandez.

And one of the key components of this Barça side has been midfield prodigy Pedri. Since landing at the club in 2020, the 20-year-old has become the beating heart of the team in the centre of the park, establishing himself as one of the best young midfielders in the game.

However, while his quality is undoubted, Pedri has had to deal with fitness and injury problems quite regularly this early in his career, something which is a concern for Barcelona.

As such, Mundo Deportivo is reporting that Barcelona have designed an anti-injury plan for Pedri as they wish to improve his proneness to injuries.

The midfielder went on to miss 15 matches across all competitions during the 2022/23 campaign and his absence was missed as the Blaugrana lacked creativity in the final third of the pitch.

The La Liga champions wish to ensure that the 20-year-old goes through an entire season injury-free given his importance to the team. As such, they have put him on a special plan to improve his strength and physicality.

“I had a holiday to prepare myself physically, which is something I wanted to improve, especially to prevent injuries that have prevented me from playing a couple of times lately,” he said in a recent interview.

Apart from working with fitness trainers and physiotherapists, another specific part of the plan involves Pedri’s diet, with the midfielder following a particular meal plan based on the advice of the club’s nutritionists.

While working to improve Pedri’s fitness, manager Xavi Hernandez has also set the midfielder some challenges on the pitch, having asked him to improve his goal output as well as his assists tally.

“Xavi asks me for many things, I can improve in many things. Last year I gave very few assists, it’s something I have to improve. I didn’t meet the ten-goal challenge, we have to set another one and meet it,” he recently said.