Three weeks ago, Barcelona tragically lost beloved club doctor Carles Miñarro Garcia, who passed away suddenly prior to the match against Osasuna, which was rearranged to last Thursday.
Miñarro Garcia was one of the doctors in the first team medical staff, and he played an important role as the understudy of lead doctor Ricard Pruna. Understandably, this is a position that Barcelona have been keen not to leave unattended for too long, which is why they have moved to sort a replacement.
And it is one that has been done in-house, with Esport3 (via MD), reporting that Lucas Gómez, who is currently the doctor of Barcelona’s futsal team, is to be moved to Hansi Flick’s staff with immediate effect.
Gomez, who is regarded within Barcelona as a “very smart, intuitive and very good person”, has been with the club for three years. He is considered to be a disciple of Miñarro Garcia when the latter was working in the futsal team setup, and the idea is for him to remain with Flick’s staff for not only the remainder of the current season, but the next one too.
It is clear that Gomez is valued very highly within Can Barca, and he will have big shoes to fill as the replacement of Miñarro Garcia. However, it is a role that Barcelona officials believe that he is very capable of doing, and he should be able to continue the good work that the medical team has been doing with the first team this season.
It is not clear when Barcelona will make the appointment of Gomez official, but it should be in the coming days or weeks. He could be in the dugout for Wednesday’s Copa del Rey semi-final second leg against Atletico Madrid, which takes place at the Metropolitano.