Barcelona defender Clement Lenglet has been given permission to miss training with the rest of the squad for the next week, with the Frenchman expected to depart the club this summer.
Lenglet spent last season on loan at Tottenham Hotspur, where he featured regularly but watched his side languish as they finished eighth in the Premier League.
A permanent return to North London has been mooted, but there is nothing concrete yet, and he is expected to leave Barcelona for good.
The 28-year-old is not part of Xavi’s plans, and with the club needing to urgently trim their wage bill, they are willing to let him stay away from the squad in order to engineer a move away.
Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that he will not have to return to training until July 18th, despite the rest the non-internationals in the squad returning yesterday to begin pre-season preparations.
Where did it go wrong for Lenglet at Barcelona?
The former France international joined for around £31.7m in 2018, having stood out at Sevilla, but after an initially bright start, poor form and injuries prevented him from making further progress at the club.
Lenglet did win a league title in his first season, playing a rotational role along with Samuel Umtiti and Gerard Pique, but this was the main highlight of his time at the club.
He started and played 90 minutes in both games as Barcelona were humiliated in the Champions League by Liverpool and Bayern Munich in consecutive years, and the club’s chaos off the pitch meant there was a few years of struggle under Ernesto Valverde, Quique Setien and Ronald Koeman, in which Lenglet struggled to hit top form.
At 28, he should have been hitting his prime years as a regular starter for Barcelona, but it now appears his time at the Camp Nou is at an end.