Barcelona have received bad news in the form of a new injury to defender Jordi Alba, who is expected to miss the next 10 days of action.

The defender suffered the problem while playing in the league match against Athletic Bilbao. Hamstring injuries are often very serious and it takes several weeks for a player to recuperate. However, Barcelona believe that the injury suffered by Alba is just the start of a major tear. Since they have found the issue much sooner, they expect the player to miss only a few weeks of action.

Even though the transfer embargo was recently lifted on the Catalan club, they still remain short on players. The decision by manager Luis Enrique to go for a small squad means that the club cannot afford too many injuries at the same time. They have already had their fair share of injuries to important players like Lionel Messi, who rarely gets injured. Left back is one of the positions where Enrique has a couple of options to choose from. The 26-year-old defender has made just 15 appearances this season. Interestingly, the matches that he misses the not count much for the club and they can certainly cope with his absence during this period.

Alba is expected to be unavailable for the league match against Malaga while he is also going to miss the return leg against Espanyol at the Camp Nou. The return leg in the Copa del Rey quarter-final has little significance since Barcelona have already asserted their superiority by getting a 2-0 win in the first leg away from home. This victory against their arch rivals was then followed by a 6-0 thrashing of Athletic Bilbao. Despite the win, Barcelona remain second in the table since Atletico Madrid continued their winning run after having played one game more.