Frenkie de Jong Pushes Back on Injury and Barcelona Relationship Rumors

Frenkie de Jong got tired of reading things about himself and decided to speak up. The Dutch midfielder, who will be out for several months with a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee, sat down for an interview with Barcelona's official channels with one clear goal: to set the record straight and put a stop to rumors that, in his view, are doing him harm.

"I'm here to clear up a couple of things," De Jong said as he opened the conversation. He went straight to the root of the problem: how he got hurt during the 2026 World Cup. "I've had really bad luck, it was an accident. Someone fell on me during a training session, and that's when I felt something in my knee. The scans showed something minor, but even though it was uncomfortable and painful, I was told I could keep playing and that it would get worse over time," the midfielder explained.

The trouble is that what looked "minor" turned out to be a lot more serious than it first appeared. "When I got back to the club, the scan showed the injury was worse than it had seemed. Nobody expected that and it was really tough," he said, not hiding how much the whole episode had affected him mentally: he admitted he was "really messed up" by it. There is no set return date. Sources consulted by ESPN have already indicated that this won't be a short absence and that the Dutchman will miss months of action. Asked about his recovery, De Jong sounded optimistic: "I'm working with the fitness coaches and we've put together a plan that everyone is happy with."

Pushing back on the rumors

The interview didn't stop there. De Jong wanted to settle the score on some reports that had circulated in recent weeks and that, in his opinion, distort his image. "There's false stuff being written that's hurting my image, hurting what people think of me," he said, visibly annoyed.

The first target was a specific report claiming he had refused to play against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. "Gerard Romero said I'd refused to play against Atletico in the Champions League, and that's false. My dream is to play for Barca, especially in the big games," De Jong responded. Romero, for his part, later went on his Twitch channel to stand by everything he had reported about the Dutchman's situation at the club.

De Jong also wanted to clear up any doubts about his relationship with the locker room and the coaching staff. "It's been said that my relationship with the coach and with the club is bad. I have a very good relationship with the coach, I talk to him a lot, you can ask him. Same with the people at the club and the board. Another lie is that I'm being punished," he said with a serious expression. Still, he made clear that football debate doesn't bother him: "I don't mind people having opinions about whether I'm good enough to play for Barca or not," he clarified, though he did admit that fake news affects him in a different way: "I see things that make me angry and irritated."

To close things out, he shifted tone and left a positive message looking ahead. The Dutchman had nothing but praise for the level of talent coming out of the club's academy: "What's happening at La Masia is incredible. Every year players come through that we don't even know about and they end up becoming really important for the first team. It's the club's DNA and we have to keep it that way," he concluded.