Barcelona fear that Marc Bernal tore his cruciate ligament in the game against Vallecano – Source

Barcelona midfielder Marc Bernal suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in Tuesday's 2-1 win over Rayo Vallecano and could miss most of the season, a source told ESPN.

Bernal, 17, was forced off in the final minutes of the match in Vallecas as Barça came from behind to make it three wins from three at the start of the new LaLiga season.

However, Bernal's injury marred the victory. Coach Hansi Flick said the young man would undergo tests on Wednesday, but confirmed he feared the worst.

“It is a sad victory because Marc Bernal is injured and things are not looking so good,” said Flick in a press conference after the game.

“We have to wait and see how tough it is. If we win, that's OK, but if you look at the dressing room, nobody is happy.”

“That's not good. He played a fantastic game – such a performance at the age of 17. That hurts.”

Bernal has been one of the positives of Barça's brilliant start to the season, making his debut for the club in their opening win over Valencia after impressing Flick in pre-season.

The Spanish youth international plays in midfield and, alongside defender Pau Cubarsí and winger Lamine Yamal, is one of three 17-year-olds who have started all three of Blaugrana's league games so far.

This creates further problems in Barça's midfield, with Frenkie de Jong and Gavi also currently out through injury and Ilkay Gungodan returning to Manchester City last week.

However, Flick stresses that the club is well positioned in this position and that there will be no panic transactions given the transfer window closes on Friday.

“It's very close to the game,” he added when asked if Barça would use the market to cover a possible long-term injury to Bernal.

“Now we have to think about everything, but at the end of the day we have a lot of players. We have one more game before the international break and then hopefully players will come back. We can cover the number 6. [position] No problem.”

Before Bernal's injury, Dani Olmo made a dream debut for Barça when he came on as a substitute to score the winning goal in the 82nd minute after Pedri had equalised after Unai López had given the team the lead.

The win put the Catalan side top of the table with nine points out of a possible nine, making it their best start to a league season since the 2018–19 campaign.

They return to action on Saturday when they host Real Valladolid at the Olympic Stadium before LaLiga takes an international break.