Roony Bardghji tears ACL, set to miss several months of the season

What started as a routine Monday training session turned into a tough blow for Barcelona. Roony Bardghji injured his right knee during the session, and tests confirmed the worst: a torn anterior cruciate ligament. The Swedish winger will undergo surgery in the coming days, the Catalan club confirmed on Tuesday.

Barcelona did not give a specific recovery timeline, which is typical when the operation hasn't taken place yet. What is clear is that Bardghji will miss several months of the season, right as he was starting to carve out a place in Hansi Flick's rotation.

The irony of the timing is that, according to reports, Barcelona itself had been negotiating a loan move for the 20-year-old to another club so he could get more minutes on the field. That deal is now automatically off the table following the diagnosis.

Bardghji joined Barcelona last year from Copenhagen, a club with which he won three Danish league titles and two Danish cups. In his first season with the Catalan club, 2025-26, he made 28 appearances across all competitions, scoring two goals and providing four assists. He signed a contract through 2029, a long-term bet on his future that is now interrupted by injury.

This isn't the first time his knee has worked against him. Barcelona itself acknowledged, when it presented him as a signing, that his development had already been slowed once before by a knee injury that kept him off the pitch for nearly a year. Going through something similar again, this time with surgery involved, is a blow both mentally and physically for a player who was just beginning to show his potential in Europe.

A layoff that hurts both on and off the field

For a young winger whose speed and dribbling were his biggest assets, this kind of injury usually requires a long and careful rehabilitation process. Barcelona's medical staff will be the ones to set the timeline once the surgery is complete, and everything points to Bardghji not being available again until well into the season.

In the meantime, the club will have to rework its options out wide without one of its promising young reserves, right at a stretch of the calendar where squad depth tends to matter just as much as starting talent.