Barcelona do not provide Marc-Andre ter Stegen recovery period as goalkeeper sets ambitious return goal

After his stomach-turning knee injury on Sunday night, Marc-Andre ter Stegen has undergone surgery on his patellar tendon in his knee less than 24 hours after the injury. The German is already on the road to recovery.

While in the past it has been common practice for Barcelona not to set recovery periods publicly for injuries, this season both Fermin Lopez and Dani Olmo were given return dates by the club. After confirming that ter Stegen had successfully undergone surgery on Monday afternoon, Barcelona did not give a return date.

That follows on from a report in Sport that ter Stegen has set himself a goal of recovering before the end of the season. While the usual recovery period of eight months would all but rule him out for the remainder of the campaign, the Catalan daily explain that the recovery can vary between six and nine months.

If he were to return after seven and a half months, then he would be back for the final five games of La Liga, including El Clasico, and the semi-finals of the Champions League were Barcelona to make it. A perfect example being Thibaut Courtois, who returned in mid-April last year after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament, and then damaging his meniscus, but he was present for the Champions League semi-finals. He ended up lifting the trophy.

Barcelona have reportedly already decided to sign a replacement for their captain, and it is likely to be a move they make imminently. They can use 80% of his salary to do so, which is estimated to be around €7m. Various names have been floated, including the likes of Keylor Navas, Claudio Bravo and even Wojciech Szczesny.