Barcelona star Dembele: From 2017 to 2021 I wasted my time enormously

• Dembele opened up on nightmare injury record
• Feels like he's lost five years of time
• Finally fit and firing for Barcelona under Xavi

WHAT HAPPENED? The Barcelona winger opened up on his struggles to maintain fitness and confessed he feels like he's wasted five years of his life.

WHAT HE SAID: "From 2017 to 2021 I wasted my time enormously," RMC Sport. "I have lost five years of my life. I had to work to be able to play, to be healthy and to be able to perform little by little.

"I've had a lot of hamstring injuries. The trainers insisted to me that if I didn't work more, I was going to relapse. With Koeman I started to improve and with Xavi it has gone better. When I came to Barca I was younger, of course I went out, but not as much as people say or as people imagine."

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Since joining Barcelona for a €105 million fee, Dembele has struggled massively with injuries. Under Ronald Koeman and most recently Xavi, though, he has found a run of fitness and has finally began to showcase his abilities.

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WHAT NEXT FOR DEMBELE? Two fixtures with the French national team await Dembele before returning to Barcelona, with one eye already firmly on the World Cup.