Catalan newspaper Sport have this week been on the lookout for injured Premier League players going to visit the famous Dr Ramon Cugat in Barcelona.
Whilst stalking De Bruyne and Kompany, Sport’s photographer spotted another injured player, Ibrahim Afellay. The Stoke City star is of special interest to the Catalan media because he used to play for Barcelona.
The Dutch footballer left Barcelona permanently last year, after a couple of loans, and Sport say he chose Stoke City over Tottenham Hotspur, but is now ‘living an ordeal’.
Afellay chose Stoke over Tottenham, because he wanted to enjoy his football again, and get lots of minutes after prolonged injury issues. Sure enough, injury issues have again hampered Afellay, with Sport saying it’s unfortunate after the fitness ‘hell’ he lived at Barcelona.
However, it’s not quite the worst case scenario it could have been for Afellay, last season he made 36 appearances for Stoke, suggesting that if it was game time he wanted, then his decision to reject Tottenham was probably the right one.
Afellay’s last match for Stoke was in April, a 4-0 loss to Tottenham.
