Pedri returned to Barcelona's pre-season only this week, and the club has no intention of rushing him. ONE reports that Barcelona's medical and fitness staff have drawn up a personalized plan for the Spain midfielder built around one clear priority: not that he peaks for the opening weekend, but that he is at his sharpest in the spring, when the league title and cup competitions are actually decided.
It is a deliberately patient approach, and one born of experience. Pedri's 2025-26 season was repeatedly interrupted by fitness problems, including a tear in the distal biceps femoris muscle of his left thigh that Barcelona confirmed in late October and that kept him out for weeks. He never fully found his rhythm afterwards, playing in patches rather than the sustained, dominant form Barcelona and Spain have come to expect from him.
Hansi Flick has already acknowledged that the club pushed its luck managing him at times last season. On Pedri's fitness, the coach admitted that keeping him on the pitch for the full 90 minutes of Barcelona's Copa del Rey semi-final against Atlético Madrid was a risk the medical staff took — one that, in hindsight, could easily have backfired.
Even carrying that fitness baggage into the World Cup, Pedri still played his part in Spain's triumph. He came off the bench for the closing half hour and extra time of the final against Argentina on July 19, with Ferran Torres eventually settling the tie 1-0 in the 106th minute at MetLife Stadium. Pedri himself forced a save out of Emiliano Martínez with a long-range effort as Spain won their second World Cup, sixteen years after their first in 2010.
That tournament arguably exposed the problem rather than hid it: a player of Pedri's class reduced to managing his body through a World Cup rather than dominating it. Barcelona's new plan is, in effect, an attempt to make sure the same thing does not happen over the course of a full club season.
The bigger picture at Camp Nou is that Barcelona believe they do not need to gamble with him. With Gavi, Fermín López and Dani Olmo all part of the same engine room, and the club still chasing a deal for Manchester City's Rodri, Flick's staff are confident they can field one of the strongest Spanish-based midfields in world football even before Pedri is back to his sharpest.
That depth is what buys Barcelona the patience to handle their most gifted passer carefully. Rather than forcing him through a full-intensity pre-season, the plan is to build his training load gradually, with match sharpness following alongside it — and the real target only arriving once winter turns to spring, when Barcelona expect their season to actually be decided.
