Rayo Vallecano1 - 2Barcelona

The 17-year-old has started all three of Barcelona's La Liga matches this season, with the youngster benefitting from the injuries to Gavi and Frenkie de Jong, and the recent departure of Ilkay Gundogan.

Bernal was forced off in the final stages of Tuesday's 2-1 win over Rayo Vallecano, though, and he looked in serious pain when he was helped off the field in Madrid.

According to ESPN, Barcelona staff are concerned that the Spaniard suffered an ACL injury, which would almost certainly rule him out of the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign.

The Catalan club's head coach Hansi Flick admitted in his pre-match press conference that Bernal's injury 'does not look good', with the medical staff currently assessing the damage.

Barcelona 'fear' Bernal has suffered ACL injury

"It's a sad victory because Marc Bernal is injured and it looks not so good," Flick told reporters in his post-match press conference.

"We have to wait and see how heavy it is. We win, it's OK, but when you see the dressing room nobody is happy. It's not good. He made a fantastic match - 17-years-old, such a performance. It hurts."

When asked whether Bernal's issue would force Barcelona into the transfer market to sign a new midfielder, Flick said: "This is very close to the match. Now we have to think about everything, but at the end of the day we have many players.

"We have one match more before the international break and then hopefully players coming back. We can cover the No.6 [position] no problem."

Olmo netted debut Barcelona goal against Rayo Vallecano

Having been registered with La Liga just in time for Tuesday's match, Dani Olmo made his Barcelona debut off the bench, and he hit the winner in the 82nd minute of the contest.

"Olmo was really good, way we were hoping for. He helped us to do what we planned and we started to combine more and play more football. The three points were deserved," said Flick.

"We will look at the game thinking about Saturday's game. We have nine points from nine, but the job is not done. We have to improve on today's first-half performance."

Barcelona will continue their La Liga season against Real Valladolid on Saturday, but they are set to be without the services of seven first-team players for the match.

Indeed, as well as Bernal, Ansu Fati, Ronald Araujo, Gavi, De Jong, Andreas Christensen and Eric Garcia are currently unavailable for selection due to fitness problems.