Barcelona has initiated disciplinary proceedings against Marc-Andre ter Stegen, stating that the goalkeeper refused to sign a medical report regarding his back injury, according to a source privy to the matter.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.
The club needed Ter Stegen to sign the report so it could be sent to the Spanish league in order to clear some salary-cap space and register other players without breaching financial fair play rules.
But the club and the goalkeeper are at odds about the recovery time for the surgery that took place last week to deal with recurring lower back ailments.
Ter Stegen said ahead of the surgery that the recovery time would be about three months. The club did not give an official timetable for the recovery process, saying only that the operation was “successful” and that “his recovery will determine when he can return.”
Depending on the length of the recovery process, Barcelona could clear a percentage of Ter Stegen’s salary from its cap, making more room to add other players to the squad.
The club signed Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garcia in June. Its other goalkeepers are veteran Wojciech Szczesny and Inaki Pena.
The league has to evaluate the report before approving the official time of recovery.
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Ter Stegen, one of the team’s captains, did not immediately speak publicly after Barcelona said it opened the disciplinary proceeding. He and the club had been expected to meet to discuss the situation in the coming days.
The 33-year-old German goalkeeper missed nearly all of last season because of a tendon rupture in his knee, and in 2023, he missed about two months because of another back operation. Pena and the 35-year-old Szczesny started in place of Ter Stegen during his knee injury.
It wasn’t clear what type of sanction Ter Stegen was facing for not signing the report.
Barcelona, the defending Spanish league champion, returned to Spain on Tuesday after completing a preseason tour in Asia.