FC Barcelona confirmed its worst fears on Monday by revealing that its star winger Lamine Yamal is out injured again.
"The first team player Lamine Yamal received a blow to the right ankle during the game against CD Leganes on Sunday," a statement shared on social media began.
"Tests carried out on Monday have revealed that the player has a grade 1 injury to a ligament in the ankle. The player is expected to be out for three to four weeks," it then added.
The ankle knock is a reoccurrence of that which occurred at the start of November and kept the Euro 2024 winner with Spain sidelined for 22 todays in total.
Lamine missed three matches as a consequence, with two of those a costly loss and draw to Real Sociedad and Celta Vigo respectively.
This made Hansi Flick field questions about an over dependence on his 17-year-old, but in any case, he now has to choose the best approach for a mammoth title race clash against Atletico Madrid in Montjuic on Saturday as a well as a Spanish Super Cup date with Athletic Club and a potential final a few days later if Lamine still hasn't recovered.
The quickest fix would be to put Raphinha back on the right wing in Lamine's place and then Ferran Torres or Dani Olmo in the now vacant left wing berth.
If it was Olmo that got the nod, this would open up a central attacking midfield spot in Flick's 4-2-3-1.
As recent as the 1-0 loss to Leganes on Sunday, this approach saw Olmo as the middle man in the '3' flanked by Lamine and Raphinha with a double pairing of Pedri and Marc Casado behind him.
With Olmo on the left, Pedri or Fermin Lopez could become more advanced to join him on that line while one of Frenkie de Jong, Gavi or Pablo Torre partners Casado.
A shift to a 4-3-3 again forces Flick to choose between Olmo and Ferran if Raphinha switches to the right.
Or, if the Brazilian stays on the left, Ferran could come in for Lamine directly.
In any case, it is unlikely that Flick would drop a figure that has mainly be his captain and arguably best in-form player in Raphinha. At the same time, Ansu Fati, who has just recovered from an injury, probably isn't a contestant in this positional rivalry.
The 4-3-3 with two of Raphinha, Olmo and Ferran, Flick again has to decide on his midfield three among the likes of Pedri, Casado, Gavi, Fermin, De Jong, Torre and perhaps Eric Garcia.