Coutinho will undergo surgery this Saturday for his meniscus injury

Philippe Coutinho will know this Saturday approximately how long he will be off after suffering an injury to the external meniscus of the left knee last Tuesday in the final minutes of the match against Eibar. Everything will depend on whether or not the damaged meniscus will be sutured or not in the arthroscopy performed by Dr. Joan Carles Monllau. In the event that a complete suture has to be executed, the minimum withdrawal period will be about four months. If finally no suturing is needed to reconstruct part of the meniscus, then we would be talking about two and a half to three months off.

In any case, Coutinho will join the long-range injured list, which includes Ansu Fati, Gerard Piqué and Sergi Roberto. The latter is the one with the most options to return first: he was diagnosed with a rupture of the rectus femoris of the right thigh with an approximate prognosis of two months of loss, so he is expected by the end of January.

With a schedule as tight as the one Barcelona has to face at the beginning of the year, we could well be talking about Coutinho losing between twenty to twenty-five games. A situation that could even be beneficial for the club's coffers, since we must not forget that when Coutinho reaches one hundred games, the club has to pay an additional 20 million to Liverpool. Currently, the forward has ninety, so depending on the severity of the injury, it could hardly reach this figure this season.

It must be remembered that Coutinho is the most expensive signing in the club's history with a total amount of 160 million, between fixed and variable. His performance has been well below expectations, to the point that the club loaned him out last season to Bayern Munich.. Upon his return to the Blaugrana club, it seemed that the player was beginning to vindicate himself, but his hamstring injury during the Clásico cut off any hope of a resurgence.