Ousmane Dembele out for up to 4 months

Barcelona’s record signing Ousmane Dembele has been ruled out for between three-and-a-half and four months after having hamstring surgery.

The second most expensive player in the world picked up his injury in the opening half hour of Barcelona’s 2-1 victory at Getafe.

Dembele was making his first La Liga start for Barcelona following his big money move from Borussia Dortmund last month.

The 20-year-old made his Barcelona debut earlier this month as a substitute during their 5-0 thrashing of local rivals Espanyol in La Liga.

Ernesto Valverde then started the exciting forward for their 3-0 thrashing of Juventus in their opening Champions League group stage match last week.  Ousmane Dembele caused real problems for the Italian side’s defence throughout the game before being substituted in the final 20 minutes.

This comes as a blow to Barcelona who cannot sign anyone until the transfer market re-opens in January.  The Catalan giants do have Gerard Deulofeu, Arda Turan and Paco Alcacer on their books as replacement options.

Ousmane Dembele had started the game at Getafe on the left of a front three alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.  Former-Everton forward Deulofeu replaced him for the final hour of the game on Saturday.

The youngster arrived from Borussia Dortmund in August for a deal with €105 million that could raise by a further €40 million depending on add-ons.  The French international is set to replace Neymar who headed to Paris Saint-Germain earlier in the summer transfer window for a world record €222 million transfer fee.