Image: Barcelona star narrowly avoids serious injury on international duty

A leading member of the midfield ranks at La Liga giants Barcelona was lucky to emerge without a serious injury following his latest exploits on the international stage on Friday evening.

The player in question? İlkay Gündoğan.

Veteran engine room star Gündoğan, for his part, is fresh off playing his part in Germany kicking into gear the country’s Euro 2024 campaign in style.

Owing to goals on the part of all of Florian Wirtz, Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz, Niclas Füllkrug and Emre Can, Julian Nagelsmann’s troops laid out something of a statement, at the expense of Scotland.

Gündoğan captained Die Mannschaft on their way to as much, seeing out the full 90 minutes at the Allianz Arena.

And yet, had things played out just a little differently, the former Manchester City man could have seen his Euros adventure brought to a close, almost as soon as it had started.

Late in the first-half, Gündoğan went to ground under a challenge in the Scotland penalty area.

Upon initial viewing, the tackle looked hard, but fair, Ryan Porteous having managed to deflect the ball out for a corner kick.

Replays, however, soon made clear the serious nature of the incident…

Porteous in fact caught Gündoğan high on his ankle, giving rise to not only a spot-kick, but a deserved red card, too.

And, as made clear in the images below, Barcelona’s engine room standout will no doubt be thanking his lucky stars that his part in the coming together did not give rise to what could so easily have been a bad, bad injury:

Conor Laird | GSFN