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After De Jong's decision: Barcelona fear a repeat of the nightmare scenario

Frenkie de Jong has opted for conservative treatment to recover from a tear of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee.

According to "Sport", Barcelona respect the midfielder's decision. That doesn't hide the concern running through the club's management.

Their worry isn't about the current diagnosis. It's about what might happen if the recovery doesn't go to plan, with the precedent of Ansu Fati still fresh in the mind.

De Jong's injury bears no resemblance to the one Fati suffered three years ago. The treatment and the layoff are entirely different too. Yet there is a common thread that explains Barcelona's unease: in both cases, the club's medical staff held a different view from the option the player eventually chose.

De Jong picked up the injury during the World Cup with the Netherlands. Despite the pain, he kept playing after the national team's doctors told him, as he explained himself, that it was a minor problem and wouldn't get worse if he carried on. The reality proved otherwise.

Tests on his return to Barcelona confirmed a tear of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee, an injury that will keep him out for several months. De Jong has now chosen conservative treatment and to avoid surgery for the time being.

Barcelona accept the decision but can't hide their fears. If the case doesn't develop as hoped and the player ends up needing an operation, his absence could stretch well beyond four months. The club would have lost precious time in getting one of its most influential players back.

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A scenario that carries some points of similarity
This is precisely what brings to mind the case of Ansu Fati. In January 2022, the forward also rejected Barcelona's recommendation and decided against surgery to treat an injury to the proximal tendon of the biceps femoris in his left thigh.
The club's medical staff and coach Xavi Hernandez both backed the operation, convinced it offered greater guarantees over the medium and long term.
Ansu, though, had grown weary of surgeries after his serious knee injury. He opted for conservative treatment alongside his own medical team.
Time proved, at least in part, that those who pushed for surgery had been right.
Fati made it back onto the pitch, but he never regained the speed and physical explosiveness that had made him one of the brightest talents to emerge from La Masia.
The setbacks kept coming, too, and his career veered completely away from what everyone had expected when he burst into the first team. Today, Ansu Fati plays for Monaco.

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Fati's experience explains why Barcelona are worried about De Jong's decision
No one inside Barcelona is comparing the two cases from a medical standpoint. The injuries are different, and there is no certainty the outcome will be similar. Conservative treatment is a common option in some cases of a torn medial collateral ligament of the knee, especially given the significant advances in sports medicine.
The experience the club went through with Ansu Fati explains why Barcelona are handling De Jong's recovery with extreme caution.
Another reason is causing dismay inside the club. There is great anger towards the Dutch federation and Ronald Koeman for allowing the player to continue taking part in the World Cup despite feeling pain.
De Jong later admitted that the injury was "more serious than was diagnosed", a statement that deepened the feeling inside Barcelona that they had taken an unnecessary risk.
Now a race against time begins. Barcelona hope the treatment the player chose will succeed and spare him the operating theatre. If that happens, the Ansu Fati affair will remain merely a memory.
Should it not work out, the Catalan club will find itself facing a scenario it knows all too well, and one no one at the training complex wants to live through again.