Koundé ruled out for Barcelona-Alavés

Koundé ruled out for Saturday's match against Alavés; ankle sprain from Betis clash ten days ago has not improved sufficiently.

Jules Koundé will miss Barcelona's La Liga fixture against Alavés on Saturday at 21:00 at Spotify Camp Nou. The French defender's left ankle sprain, sustained in the Betis-Barcelona match ten days earlier, has not recovered adequately. Although early-week forecasts suggested an optimistic return, Koundé experienced discomfort when putting on his boot on Wednesday and trained separately from the group. With the match imminent, all parties decided against risking his reappearance to avoid aggravating the injury.

Barcelona manager Flick will be without Koundé alongside Eric García, Andreas Christensen and Xavi Espart, leaving Joao Cancelo, Pau Cubarsí, Gerard Martín and Alejandro Balde as the only available defenders. The club may explore repositioning Brian Fariñas as right-back or other tactical adjustments, with 18-year-old academy centre-back Álex Campos having trained with the first team this week.