Piqué is still in pain: he will infiltrate to play the final

As AS has learned, Piqué will be infiltrated again this Friday after the afternoon session held by the team at the La Cartuja stadium in Seville. As happened last week in El Clásico, the central defender will undergo a cortisone puncture therapy and analgesic 24 hours before the start of the match, with the aim of being available for the Cup final against Athletic. And again it will be the first team doctor, Lluis Til, who will personally supervise the treatment.

This is obviously not good news, because the infiltration makes it clear that the pain in the right knee remains and that the player is exercising with discomfort. An obvious drawback regarding his title to the Cup final: playing undercover presupposes that he will not be at one hundred percent of his possibilities.

In any case, the last word on whether or not he will be in the starting XI against Athletic will be Ronald Koeman. The coach will have to assess whether or not it is worth forcing Piqué, and the degree of risk that you are willing to take, bearing in mind that an infiltration only mitigates the pain, but in no case improves the injury.

Piqué, with this new infiltration, shows his absolute commitment to the team, but in the Classic he also punctured his knee and finally did not play for a minute. We will have to see what Koeman's final decision is, who, according to his surroundings, learned the lesson of what happened in the first leg against PSG in the Champions League, in which the central defender reappeared in record time to help the team , but showing a lack of rhythm that ended up affecting the team and having a negative impact.

And is that Piqué has not played a game since last March 3Precisely the second leg of the Cup semifinals against Sevilla (3-0), where a goal from his header in the last gasp, tied the tie and led the team to extra time. I mean, right now, he adds up to almost a month and a half off the pitch. And if we add from the first injury, at the end of November, Piqué has only played five games in the last five months.

What's more It must be taken into account that the recovery of Ronald Araújo, the good moment of the game of Clément Lenglet and the regularity of Óscar Mingueza are offering many guarantees to the team in recent weeks, although it is true that in recent games some gaps have appeared regarding the convenience of betting on the three central backs. And it is that both against Valladolid and against Real Madrid, Koeman was forced to change the three centrals for a usual line of four at halftime.