Robert Lewandowski ruled out for a couple of weeks

Barcelona lost 1-0 over the weekend against Almeria and, in the process, threw away the opportunity to go 10 points up on Real Madrid.

As if blowing that chance wasn’t bad enough, the Catalan side got even more bad news the following day.

Already plagued by injuries to Pedri and Ousmane Dembélé, you can add Robert Lewandowski’s name to that injury list.

The club announced that the Polish striker had picked up an injury to his left hamstring. While they did not include a timetable for his return, he is expected to be out for a couple of weeks.

At the very least, he should be back in time for the league Clasico against Real Madrid on March 19. It’s not ruled out he could be back a week earlier against Athletic Bilbao.

Whichever way you spin it, however, this is another big blow that Barcelona could do without. Despite his current slump, Lewandowski is still a difference maker and more than integral as Barcelona do not have a back-up striker on their squad.

Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati can play as a striker but both are better suited on the wing. The former has been used there with limited success. The latter has been inconsistent and did not feature against Almeria after picking up a knock in training prior to the game.

This isn’t the first time Barcelona will be without Lewandowski for a number of games. They had to do without him for three games after he was shown a red card in their match against Osasuna.

Other players did pick up the slack. However, the one who picked up the most slack was Pedri who is injured. The same could be said for Dembélé and it is no coincidence Lewandowski’s slump has come with both of them on the sidelines.

Barcelona were already going to have their work cut out for them at the Bernabeu against Madrid. Their task has now become even more difficult without their star striker.