AS Monaco has explained why new signing Ansu Fati is yet to feature in pre-season for the French Ligue 1 side, Afrosport reports.
The 22-year-old Guinea-Bissau born player joined the Red and Whites on loan for the upcoming 2025-26 season from Barcelona but is yet to feature for the club after six pre-season games along with new signing and French midfielder Paul Pogba, who joined on a free transfer after serving a doping ban.
Fati’s inactivity has raised questions in Spain about whether Monaco are already getting impatient with the player who only featured in 11 games last season and had less than 300 minutes of action on the pitch.
Hutter however explained the reason for Fati’s absence in pre-season is because he is still building up his fitness and is not willing to rush him to avert the risk of another injury.
“Ansu Fati is getting closer and closer to joining the group with Paul Pogba,” he said.
“At Barcelona, he wasn’t able to work as he should have, but I think that in 10 or 15 days time, he’ll be more present in training.
“I want him back as soon as possible, but as we’ve already said, we have to be careful with Ansu. We don’t want him to relapse or accumulate any potential physical problems.”
6 matches unbeaten in preseason! ❤️🤍 pic.twitter.com/Q3t3HUUrdo
— AS Monaco EN 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco_EN) August 1, 2025
Monaco have won five of the six pre-season games so far, defeating Cercle Brugge, Coventry City, Arminia Bielefeld and Torino (twice) while drawing against Nottingham Forest.
They will conclude pre-season against Ajax and Inter Milan before opening their Ligue 1 campaign at home against Le Havre on August 16.
