Barcelona fear Marc Bernal has suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury against Vallecano – source

Barcelona midfielder Marc Bernal suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in Tuesday’s 2-1 win over Rayo Vallecano and could miss most of the season, a source told ESPN.

The 17-year-old Bernal was sent off in the final minutes of the match in Vallecas as Barça came from behind to level the score at 3-3 to kick off the new LaLiga season.

However, Bernal’s injury threw a spanner in the works for victory. Coach Hansi Flick said the youngster would undergo tests on Wednesday, but confirmed that he feared the worst.

“It’s a sad victory because Marc Bernal is injured and it doesn’t look good,” Flick said at a post-match press conference.

“We have to wait and see how tough it is. If we win, it’s okay, but when you see the dressing room, nobody is happy.

“It’s not good. He made a fantastic match — 17 years old, such a performance. It hurts.”

Bernal has been one of the positive players in Barça’s good start to the season, making his debut for the club in the opening match against Valencia after impressing Flick in pre-season.

The Spain youth international plays centrally in midfield and is one of three 17-year-olds to have started all three of the Blaugrana’s league games so far, along with defender Pau Cubarsí and winger Lamine Yamal.

It creates further problems in midfield for Barca, with Frenkie de Jong and Gavi also currently injured and Ilkay Gungodan returning to Manchester City last week.

However, Flick insists the club is well covered for the position and there will be no panic buying with the transfer window closing on Friday.

“This is very close to the game,” he added when asked if Barca would turn to the market to deal with a possible long-term injury to Bernal.

“Now we have to think about everything, but in the end we have a lot of players. We have one more game before the international period and then hopefully players will come back. We can cover the number 6 (position) without any problems.”

Before Bernal was injured, Dani Olmo was making a dream debut for Barça, coming on as a substitute and scoring the winning goal in the 82nd minute after Pedri had cancelled out Unai López’s opener.

The win takes the Catalan side to the top of the table with nine points out of a possible nine, marking their best start to a league campaign since the 2018-19 season.

They are back in action on Saturday when they host Real Valladolid at the Olympic Stadium before LaLiga enters an international break.