Barcelona and Raphinha to Investigate Why He Keeps Getting Injured with Brazil

Raphinha will undergo medical examinations on Tuesday morning at the Ciutat Esportiva de Sant Joan Despí, and beyond assessing his physical condition, Barcelona wants to sit down with him to figure out why he keeps picking up injuries every time he joins Brazil. In the last six months he has broken down three times during international camps, and always in the same spot: the back of his right thigh.

• The Brazilian forward has suffered his third muscle injury with the national team in six months.
• All the problems are located in the back of his right thigh.
• The club wants to compare his warm-up and training routines with Brazil and Barcelona.
• Raphinha played 90 minutes against Australia and started again three days later in Melbourne.
• Barcelona's priority is to stop the issue from repeating in future international breaks.

What Barcelona Hopes to Learn from the Raphinha Talks

The club's medical and fitness staff want to determine whether there is a pattern in the training sessions, warm-ups or workload with the Brazilian national team that could have caused these repeated breakdowns. They are especially interested in checking whether his preparation habits with the Canarinha differ from the routine he follows day to day as a Barcelona player.

The Brazilian international has started the season in excellent form for Barcelona, now working under Benjamin Kügel as the new fitness coach. Yet as soon as he joined up with his national team, the muscle problems returned, although this time they do not appear to be serious.

The Trip to Australia and Raphinha's Minutes

Brazil head coach Carlo Ancelotti played him for the full 90 minutes last Friday in Australia. He was the only forward to complete the entire match after such a long journey, and three days later he was named in the starting line-up again in Melbourne. That sequence of efforts is one of the points Barcelona wants to review with the player.

The Timeline of His Three Injuries with Brazil

March: Hamstring Injury in Boston

The first setback of 2026 came in late March, in a friendly against France played in Boston. He suffered a right hamstring injury that ruled him out of the Champions League quarter-final against Atlético Madrid, a tie in which the Rojiblancos ended up knocking Barcelona out.

June: Relapse at the World Cup

On June 20, in the second World Cup match against Haiti, he felt pain again in the back of his right thigh. That injury kept him out of the games against Scotland and Japan, and in the round of 16 against Norway he was on the bench after being medically cleared, though he never got onto the pitch.

September: Returns from Australia Carrying a Knock

The third episode is the current one. After playing both matches in Australia, the winger returns to Barcelona with discomfort in the same area. It is not considered serious, but the repeated pattern has set off alarm bells.

Barcelona's Goal: Stop the Cycle

The club does not want history to repeat itself in the next international window. That is why the conversation with Raphinha is seen as a key step to understand what happens when the player changes his working environment and whether there is room for coordination with Brazil to adjust workloads, warm-ups or recovery protocols.

The recent record shows that injuries with Brazil have come at a direct cost to Barcelona's goals. The one in March left him out of the Champions League quarter-finals; the one in June conditioned his World Cup participation; and the current one arrives at the start of the season, as Hansi Flick's side tries to settle its best eleven and collect points from the opening matchdays.