Gavi is enduring one of the most delicate spells since his promotion to the Barcelona first team, hit by a situation he has never faced before in his career.
Sport newspaper reported that Gavi sat out the Clasico for the first time since his Barcelona debut, and that it was a technical decision.
Hansi Flick left Gavi out against Real Madrid. That carries real weight when you consider how much the player values these fixtures, and his hunger for the big occasion.
Just days earlier, Gavi had been one of the loudest voices in the build-up, making no secret of how desperate he was to face the old rivals.
"In Clasico matches, you have to go to war," he said on Saturday. "It does not matter how either team arrives at the match, these are encounters that are played to the death."
The words dripped with enthusiasm. None of it carried over onto the pitch.
A place on the bench came as no shock. The shock was that Flick never gave him a single minute.
Starts have been rare for Gavi this season, and his struggle to force his way into the side has grown more obvious with every passing week.
Flick had already sat down with him to explain the brutal competition in midfield.
"Gavi has great ambition, and he always wants to play," the German coach said last September. "He played, then he was injured, and after that he returned to playing, but the team is going well in its current state, and that has to be accepted."
The message was clear: be patient. The trouble is that his situation threatens to grow even thornier. Frenkie de Jong is back, already featuring against Real Madrid, and that opens up fresh competition in an area where Pedri and Rodri look nailed on.
Fermin and Dani Olmo offer more attacking alternatives on top of that. Even Marc Bernal, given his profile and his position, has edged ahead of Gavi in minutes in certain scenarios.
All of which could leave Gavi dead last in Flick's midfield pecking order.
At 22, Gavi faces a challenge he never saw coming. Having come through serious physical problems, he needs continuity and a genuine influence on the team again.
His competitive edge is beyond question. Now he has to convince Flick he merits a spot in a midfield where a seat gets harder to claim by the day.
Gavi's contract runs until 2030 and his commitment to the club is total. Even so, his situation between now and January will be worth watching closely.
Flick leans on limited rotation, yet even with those changes the numbers make grim reading for Gavi. He has started just two matches and racked up only a handful of minutes.
Being frozen out of this Clasico stands out all the more given the mark Gavi used to leave on these games.