Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong remains on the sidelines due to an ankle injury picked up all the way back in April.

The Dutch star is eager to avoid surgery and there’s hope that he could return to training this week to try and test out how he’s feeling.

Yet there’s still big doubts over De Jong’s fitness, with Dutch coach Ronald Koeman saying recently that it’s a “worrying situation” after three “nasty” injuries to the same area.

Barcelona are starting to think that surgery is the “only option” to fix De Jong’s current injury, but the midfielder has a different opinion, according to Diari Ara.

The Netherlands star feels that an operation “does not guarantee” a complete success because it’s “difficult to adjust the proper tension point through surgery.”

De Jong is suffering from syndesmosis which is not usually treated on the operating table, but Barca are thinking it’s the best way forward as current treatment does not seem to be working..

Yet if De Jong does finally go under the knife he will be ruled out of action until the end of the year and will not return until 2025.

For now, it seems that De Jong will hope to test his ankle in training shortly, and if he endures another setback he’ll have little option but to go under the knife.