La Liga have granted Barcelona permission to register goalkeeper Joan Garcia ahead of their season opener against Mallorca on Saturday, Afrosport reports.
The Spanish champions confirmed on Wednesday that the league’s medical committee has classified Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s injury as “long-term”, ruling him out for at least four months. The Germany international had earlier indicated he would be sidelined for three months following back surgery last month.
Barcelona initially removed Ter Stegen as club captain and began legal proceedings against him, claiming the 33-year-old had refused to sign his consent to share his medical report with La Liga. However, the Catalan club later reversed their decision and reinstated him as captain after he agreed to release the report to the league’s governing body.
Under La Liga’s injury rule, clubs can register a replacement player depending on the expected length of an injury absence. Barcelona can now use part of Ter Stegen’s salary to ease their registration issues — same mechanism they also utilised last season to register Dani Olmo when Andreas Christensen suffered a long-term injury.
“FC Barcelona hereby announces that LaLiga’s Medical Committee has ruled that goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen’s injury meets the long-term injury criteria established by current regulations,” a club statement read.
“The club will proceed tomorrow to immediately formalise the registration of player Joan García.”
The decision means Garcia, who joined from Espanyol this summer for €25 million, will be eligible to play in Saturday’s trip to Mallorca.
Barcelona still have several unregistered players, including summer signings Marcus Rashford and Roony Bardghji. Reports suggest the club’s board of directors have agreed to lodge a sizeable guarantee against future earnings to facilitate the registrations.
