Barcelona awaiting news on Araujo hamstring injury

Barcelona are awaiting news on the extent of the hamstring problem sustained by Ronald Araujo while away on international duty with Uruguay.

The 22-year-old was injured during the second half of his national side’s 3-0 loss to Argentina on Sunday and has been ruled out of Thursday’s World Cup qualifier with Brazil.

Barcelona confirmed on Tuesday that Araujo, who has made 48 appearances for the club in total since his debut in October 2019, will now return to Catalonia to undergo further tests.

Araujo has appeared in all nine of Barca’s games this season – seven in LaLiga and two in the Champions League – totalling 615 minutes on the field.

Only Marc-Andre ter Stegen (630), Frenkie de Jong (676), Sergio Busquets (734) and Memphis Depay (809) have featured more regularly under Ronald Koeman this term.

Araujo’s passing accuracy of 93.59 per cent is the second-best of any defender to have played at least six times in LaLiga this term, behind Real Madrid’s Nacho (93.82).

Koeman’s side face Valencia on their return to LaLiga action on Sunday and have a huge showdown with Real Madrid to come the following week, with a Champions League tie against Dynamo Kiev sandwiched in between.