Dembele drops hint of early Barcelona return

Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele has hinted he will return from injury earlier than expected.

The France international travelled for surgery on a hamstring tear in Finland on Monday and has officially been ruled out of action for three and a half months.

Dembele returned to Catalonia on Wednesday, the day after his team-mates had worn 'Courage Ousmane' t-shirts in the warm-up for their 6-1 LaLiga thrashing of Eibar at Camp Nou.

The 20-year-old posted the team photo from before that match on his Instagram page and included a hashtag reading "I'll be back in two months", suggesting he hopes to be fully fit much sooner than had been planned.

A comeback to competitive action by the middle of November would see Dembele in contention for the trip to Juventus in the Champions League and the league meeting with Valencia at Mestalla.

The €105million signing could simply have been referring to when he hopes to resume light training, however.