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Barcelona striker Sergio Aguero caused plenty of concern after being forced off in the first half of the Catalans’ La Liga clash with Alaves at the Camp Nou on Saturday, as shown by ESPN Deportes.
The Argentine started the game in attack along with Memphis Depay and Sergino Dest but went down in some distress holding his throat five minutes before half-time. ESPN’s Samuel Marsden thought that Aguero was having difficulty breathing.
The stretcher was called for Aguero and he was treated on the pitch by medics. The striker did manage to sit up and then walk off the pitch. He was replaced by Philippe Coutinho but the incident caused plenty of concern from journalists covering the game.
Saturday was just Aguero’s fifth appearance for Barcelona since his summer move. The former Manchester City man missed the start of the campaign after sustaining a calf injury in pre-season.
Aguero was subsequently taken to hospital in an ambulance, as reported by Jose Alvarez. The striker is said to be “fine” but his heart rate was higher than it should have been and the medical staff want to do “more tests.”
Barcelona have since confirmed that Aguero “has been admitted to hospital for a cardiac exam” after “reporting chest discomfort.”
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Aguero Adds To Barcelona’s Problems
The loss of Aguero adds to Barcelona’s problems. The Catalan giants were already without a host of players for Saturday’s match. Interim coach Sergi Barjuan named a 22-man squad but was without regulars such as Frenkie de Jong, Pedri, Ronald Araujo, Ansu Fati and Ousmane Dembele due to injury.
Barca’s lengthy injury list meant that Barjuan called up youngsters Abde Ezzalzouli and Alvaro Sanz to the first-team’s matchday squad for the first time. Both players started the game on the bench.
Barjuan made few changes to the starting XI for his first game in charge after taking over, temporarily at least, from Ronald Koeman, Oscar Mingueza came in at right-back, while Gavi returned to the line-up in place of Coutinho.
Barcelona Lose Pique Too
Barcelona suffered further injury blows in the second half when Gerard Pique and young midfielder Nico Gonzalez were also forced off with injuries. The center-back was replaced by Clement Lenglet on the 70-minute mark, while Nico went off 10 minutes later.
Lenglet has struggled for game time this season and has only made two starts for the Catalan giants. It remains to be seen how serious Pique’s injury is but his absence could give Lenglet the chance to stake a claim for a place in the team, particularly with Araujo also still sidelined.
Lenglet certainly now looks set to start Barcelona’s next match on Tuesday, November 2 against Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League. The fixture is a crucial match for Barca after they opened their European campaign with defeats to Bayern Munich and Benfica.
The Catalans bounced back with a 1-0 win over Dynamo Kiev last time out in the Champions League at the Camp Nou but will need to back that up with another victory in Ukraine if they are to keep their hopes of qualification to the knockout stages alive.
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