The difficult months for Vermaelen

Last monday, Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen arrived in the city after being operated on in Finland where he underwent a surgery on his semitendinosus muscle in the right hamstring and now will have to undergo four to five months of recovery.

He thanked all the fans and also the rest of the team for their support during his time out of the pitch, not knowing that his teammates will wear shirts in support of him during the 5-1 victory against city rivals Espanyol.

He told to Barcelona TV that he knew nothing and it was a big surprise, he was grateful to all his teammates for their support with the shirt and has given him strength to cope with the next hard few weeks.

He also pointed out that the last few months have been very difficult, as he wasn’t able to recover and that’s why he was forced to operate. Now his only focus is to recover as soon as possible.

Also on Monday, FIFA denied an special permission to sign a new defender to substitute Vermaelen.

Barcelona asked for a emergency signing under “exceptional situations” in Spanish federation rules, despite being banned to sign new players.

FIFA told Barcelona that the disciplinary committee did not conceive and exception for signing outside of the official periods.

FIFA ban was imposed after Barcelona broke rules on international signings of young players and will take place in January, pending an appeal presented to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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