Barcelona seek answers over Raphinha’s recurring Brazil injuries

Barcelona want to speak to Raphinha to understand why the forward has suffered his past three injuries while on international duty with Brazil.

All three problems have affected the same area: the back of his right thigh. According to Mundo Deportivo, members of Barcelona’s physical performance department plan to talk to Raphinha either before or after his medical examinations to establish whether a repeated pattern in training or warm-ups may be contributing to the injuries.

The club also want to determine whether the methods used during Brazil camps differ from the daily programme followed by Raphinha at Barcelona.

Raphinha made an excellent start to the season with the Catalan club after Benjamin Kugel was appointed as their new fitness coach. However, he developed another muscular problem after linking up with Brazil, although the latest issue does not currently appear to be serious.

Brazil manager Carlo Ancelotti played Raphinha for the full 90 minutes in last Friday’s match against Australia. He was the only forward to complete the game after a long journey, before Ancelotti named him in the starting line-up again on Tuesday in Melbourne.

Barcelona’s concern stems from the player’s recent injury history with Brazil.

Raphinha’s first injury of 2026 came at the end of March, when he damaged his right hamstring during a friendly against France in Boston. The problem ruled him out of Barcelona’s Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid, who eventually eliminated the Spanish club.

On 20 June, Raphinha was injured during Brazil’s second World Cup match, against Haiti, after feeling pain in the back of his right thigh. He missed the next two games against Scotland and Japan.

He was then named among the substitutes for the last-16 tie against Norway after being cleared to play, but he did not come on.

Raphinha has now returned from Australia with another physical problem, and preventing the same sequence from happening again is Barcelona’s main objective.

The club are therefore examining the circumstances surrounding his latest injury, with particular attention expected to be paid to his preparation and workload while with Brazil.