Barcelona Boss Valverde Hints Inexperience to Blame for Ousmane Dembele Injury

Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde has blamed inexperience for Ousmane Dembele's hamstring injury that could see him out of action for up to four months. 

The Blaugrana announced the 20-year-old Frenchman required surgery after being substituted in the first half of Saturday's 2-1 La Liga win over Getafe.

There was a suspicion Dembele may have felt pain in his hamstring before the match started—he pulled up in the 24th minute having chased a ball down into the corner and backheeled it back in play—but Valverde said there is no point wondering about "what ifs" surrounding the incident, per Santi Gimenez of AS:

"We can't dwell on it. When someone is stretching they always touch their leg. He has never had a problem like that, and he doesn't have the experience to detect something like that. When a player is going at that speed and does a backheel it can happen, it's a possibility. It happened to me. Maybe in a more experienced player it wouldn't have. It's happened to us all at some point and we have to view it with a long-term perspective. He's a young player and he'll recover. 

"What is certain is that if he hadn't tried the backheel it wouldn't have happened. We're not going round in circles over it and we're not going to get down about it, the way we're looking at it is that he is one day closer to recovering."

Gerard Deulofeu and Denis Suarez are likely going to have to be called into action to cover for Dembele while he is injured.

It is unlikely he will be fit again until 2018—Barcelona's diagnosis suggested an absence of "between three-and-a-half months and four months"—which is a huge blow for the Catalan giants.

Barca bought Dembele from Borussia Dortmund in the summer in a deal worth up to £135.5 million as a replacement for Neymar, who left for Paris Saint-Germain.

He was making his first league start for the club against Getafe but now faces a lengthy recovery having barely begun his Barcelona career.

Valverde's side have made a strong start to the new campaign, winning four out of four to top the La Liga table and thrashing Juventus 3-0 in their opening UEFA Champions League clash.

They have plenty of quality in their ranks but could feel the effects of Dembele's absence as the season continues and crucial matches come thick and fast before the end of the year.