Ousmane Dembele admits he has wasted five years of his life at Barcelona due to hamstring injuries

Ousmane Dembele has admitted he ‘wasted the last five years of his life’ at Barcelona and feared he would ‘fail’ if he didn’t get to the bottom of his injury woes.

The 25-year-old joined Borussia Dortmund’s Catalan club in 2017 and initially struggled to deliver on the milestone. The club paid £135 million for him after he was plagued with recurring soft tissue injuries for the past five years.

Life in Spain did not start smoothly for the winger after he was ruled out with a hamstring injury for most of the 2017-18 season within weeks of joining the club.

Hamstring injuries have plagued the winger’s time at Barcelona since he joined in 2017

That would become a recurring problem, with the French international going further Reportedly missed around 102 games for Barcelona since his arrival, despite making 158 appearances and scoring 34 goals for the club.

Dembele has since flipped his form under new boss Xavi and has scored twice this season and provided four assists in seven starts under the Spaniard. Last season, he provided 13 assists in LaLiga under both Ronald Koeman and Xavi.

But talk to RMC SportsDembele looked back on his hard times and how he ‘wasted’ much of his career at the Camp Nou.

‘My lifestyle in my first years at Barca? I was young, just like everyone else. But I managed to get out of this situation. However, not everything is as people imagined. From 2017 to 2021 I wasted my time immensely. I wasted five years of my life.

‘I had to work to play and perform. I wanted to be healthy, to be healthy to play and then perform better little by little.

Dembele has put his fitness and form issues behind him and excels under Xavi (R)

Dembélé underwent hamstring surgery in 2020 and missed almost the entire season. He admitted that the club had told him he needed to get stronger to avoid hurting himself in the future.

“I had a lot of hamstring injuries. If you don’t work, you stand still. You’re going to hurt yourself if you don’t get stronger, they told me. Koeman and Xavi were doing better. Since then I have had no more injuries. Fingers crossed, we keep working.

“I’m fine, I feel good at Barcelona, ​​I have the confidence of the whole team, the whole club and I’m happy. Now that everyone’s talking about football, it’s better.”

Rumors of his departure have dominated the headlines in recent years and it almost became apparent in January when talks over a contract extension with the Blaugrana came to a stalemate and Dembele was nearly forced to leave by the cramped club.

While previously insisting he never wanted to leave Barcelona, ​​Dembele claimed it was Xavi who played a part in letting him stay and perform at the Camp Nou and was now content with the club.

‘It went better with Koeman and Xavi. Since then I have had no more injuries. Fingers crossed, we keep working.

Dembele claims things have improved since Ronald Koeman and Xavi arrived at Barcelona

‘Fingers crossed, we keep working. I feel good at Barcelona, ​​I have the confidence of the whole team, the whole club and I am happy. Now that everyone is talking about football, it’s better.

“With Xavi’s confidence, I had to stay. I really want Barca to win the Champions League again. It’s been seven years since the club won him.’

He signed a new two-year deal in July in which he accepted a 40 per cent pay cut as Barcelona tried to get out of their financial difficulties, while Dembele will receive a 50 per cent cut on his transfer fee if a club pays more than £43 million for him.