Injury jinx strikes Barcelona's Thomas Vermaelen again

Madrid: The injury jinx that seems to follow Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen, struck again when the Belgian international footballer suffered another muscle injury during his side's 2-1 away win against Atletico Madrid on Saturday night.

The central defender, who was first choice for Luis Enrique's side as a result of the four-game ban being served by Gerard Pique, had to limp out of the game after just 25 minutes with an apparent calf problem, reports Xinhua.

The club has not yet confirmed how long he will be sidelined, but it is likely to be at least three weeks and Vermaelen has a long history of muscle problems which have pursued him over the past three years.

He missed almost all of his debut season with Barcelona after joining from Arsenal with a troublesome injury which only cleared up in the last month of the campaign.

However, he had begun this season in positive form and had covered well for Pique, who will be able to play in this week's Champions League fixture away against Italian outfit AS Roma but not in the following home game against Levante.

Brazilian Dani Alves is also sidelined with a muscle injury which means that Spaniard Marc Bartra will almost certainly start next weekend when Barcelona will look to make it four wins out of four in the La Liga.