Barcelona learn severity of nasty looking Frenkie de Jong injury

Frenkie de Jong is set to miss the remainder of Barcelona's season after suffering a nasty ankle injury during Sunday's 3-2 defeat to Real Madrid.

De Jong was stretchered off the field deep into first half stoppage time and was sent for scans on his ankle on Monday as Barcelona fans sweated over whether they would see the midfielder again this season.

Barcelona have diagnosed De Jong with an ankle sprain but refused to but a timeframe on his return to action.

Numerous outlets, including ESPN and SPORT, add that De Jong has been ruled out for at least five weeks which, given there are just six games left of the La Liga campaign, will bring the 26-year-old's season to an end.

Barca boss Xavi is already without long-term absentee Gavi but has recently welcomed Pedri back to the fold and does have several options to replace De Jong, particularly after Andreas Christensen was converted into a midfielder.

It was Pedri who came off the bench to replace De Jong against Madrid, while Fermin Lopez was brought on at half-time and found the back of the net.

That group will have to help Barcelona through their remaining six games of the campaign. Valencia are next up for Xavi's side before meetings with Girona, Real Sociedad, Almeria, Rayo Vallecano and Sevilla.

A five-week absence would see De Jong, who has been strongly linked with a summer move to Bayern Munich, return to action just after the La Liga season comes to an end on May 26, but there are obvious doubts over whether he will be fit to feature for the Netherlands at Euro 2024 this summer.

The Dutch national team are scheduled to face Poland on June 16 in their Euros opener, giving De Jong around seven weeks to get himself back to full fitness.

France are the opponents on June 21 before the Netherlands round their group campaign out against Austria four days later.

READ THE LATEST BARCELONA NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP