Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski out of Clasico against Real Madrid with leg injury

Barcelona strik­er Robert Lewandows­ki will miss Thurs­day’s Clási­co against Real Madrid with a sore hamstring.

The 34-year-old Lewandows­ki was injured in Sun­day’s 1–0 loss to Almería, miss­ing a chance for Barça to extend their lead over La Liga lead­ers Madrid to 10 points.

A source told ESPN that he could miss this week’s clash in the Copa del Rey semi-final first leg at the Bern­abéu, as well as the league clash between Valen­cia and Ath­let­ic Club. Thing.

Barça will host Madrid in the La Liga at the Camp Nou on the 19th, when Lewandows­ki is expect­ed to return.

Barça issued a state­ment on Mon­day, say­ing: “Robert Lewandows­ki has a strain in his left ham­string biceps femoris. The Pol­ish strik­er will not play until the prob­lem is resolved.”

Lewandows­ki missed three games on sus­pen­sion in Jan­u­ary and Barça have no nat­ur­al back­up for the strik­er after forc­ing Pierre-Emer­ick Aubameyang and Mem­phis Depay to leave the club.

Barça are also with­out Pedri and Ous­mane Dem­bele through injury.

Dem­bele has­n’t played since suf­fer­ing a thigh injury against Girona in late Jan­u­ary, while Pedri has­n’t played since suf­fer­ing the injury against Man­ches­ter Unit­ed on 16 February.

Both play­ers are hop­ing to return for the Clási­co against Madrid on March 19, but Barça are fac­ing a short­age of attack­ing play­ers in the run up to that game.

Injuries to Lewandows­ki, Dem­bélé and Pedri mean that Gabi and Rafin­ha will be absent from Valen­cia this week­end. Both play­ers received their fifth cau­tion of the sea­son against Almería and will be sus­pend­ed for one match, along with man­ag­er Xavi Hernández.

Barça’s shock defeat to Almería was the sec­ond in La Liga this sea­son, end­ing their 13-game unbeat­en streak. Barça remain sev­en points behind Madrid, but after draw­ing 1–1 with Atléti­co Madrid on Sat­ur­day, they could be down to ten points.

The loss marked the end of a dis­ap­point­ing week for Blau­grana. They were also elim­i­nat­ed from the Europa League after los­ing 4–3 to United.

Xavi described his per­for­mance in Alme­ria as “the worst of the sea­son” and said before the game that he could win the Span­ish Super Cup in Jan­u­ary and dou­ble the league and cup.