Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen is to undergo surgery for a patellar tendon problem, the Catalan club have announced.
The German, who was troubled by tendonitis earlier in the season and missed a couple of games at the beginning of the year, has decided to fix the problem now that Barca's season is over.
According to reports in Spain, the 28-year-old could be out of action for up to two months.
If confirmed, that would see him miss the start of the new LaLiga season, which gets under way on September 12.
That would leave Neto and Inaki Pena as Barcelona's only available goalkeepers for their season opener.
"Based upon the exchange with the medical team, the first team player Marc ter Stegen will do a voluntary medical intervention tomorrow on his right patellar tendon conducted by the expert Dr. Ramon Cugat," Barcelona said on their website on Monday.
And they added: "It is a proactive measure which is now done in order to prevent and prepare for the future, since the player had some irritations on the tendon earlier in the season."
Ter Stegen played the entire 90 minutes as Barcelona were crushed 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final on Friday.
