Barcelona have suffered another major injury blow after the potential long term injury to Samuel Umtiti, in the form of a biceps femoris injury to former Arsenal defender, Thomas Vermaelen. The veteran defender was chalked off in the 73th minute in a UEFA Nations League match against Switzerland.

Following his return to the club, medical tests were carried out with the results ruling him out for six weeks, although the figure is tentative and the injury can be easily aggravated. Vermaelen is no stranger to major injuries considering this is his ninth since joining from Arsenal, and his fifth major one.

This news comes at a very bad time for Barcelona, just when Umtiti was recently sidelined. The team is going to be facing a brutal string of fixtures just after the international break and they’ll need some of these injured players back before then.

Surely, Barcelona manager, Ernesto Valverde will want to field Gerard Pique and Samuel Umtiti in the upcoming matches but the latter is not yet fully back in training. It’s looking increasingly likely that Clement Lenglet will be introduced to replace Samuel Umtiti as Pique’s partner in the coming weeks.

In that case, the defensive partnership of Pique and Lenglet will totally be without backup as Vermaelen is sidelined till late December and Umtiti possibly out for the rest of the year. This won’t do the team any good, especially considering the fact that Gerard Pique is ageing.

There is also the possibility of Valverde calling up Jorge Cuenca to the first team as a replacement for the Belgian.

Thomas Vermaelen is a Belgian professional footballer who currently plays as a centre-back for Spanish club Barcelona and the Belgium national team.  Vermaelen made his international debut for Belgium in 2006. The defender is known for his goalscoring ability.