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Barcelona have granted defender Ronald Araújo a break as he attempts to deal with mental issues which have been hindering his performances this season, a source confirmed to ESPN.
Araújo, 26, has made 15 appearances for Barça in all competitions this campaign, with his last outing ending in a red card in last week’s 3-0 Champions League defeat to Chelsea.
The centre-back subsequently missed the weekend’s 3-1 win over Alavés, with Barça saying at the time he had a stomach bug.
However, speaking ahead of Tuesday’s LaLiga game against Atlético Madrid, Barça coach Hansi Flick said the Uruguay international was dealing with some private issues.
A source confirmed to ESPN that physically Araújo has been fine this season, but that he has not been 100% mentally for a while and has requested some time from the club to recover.
The ESPN source wanted to clear up the situation to avoid any misinterpretation of what Flick had said earlier on Monday.
“Ronald is not ready at the moment,” the German coach said in a news conference.
“It’s a private situation. I don’t want to say more. Please also respect it. This is what I can say and what I want to say.”
Araújo has been at Barcelona since 2018, initially joining the B team before being promoted to the first team.
He has subsequently made 190 appearances for Barça in all competitions, scoring 12 goals, and he is now part of the leadership group along with Marc-André ter Stegen, Frenkie de Jong, Raphinha and Pedri