Ronaldinho

Madrid: Barcelona forward Ronaldinho will miss the rest of the season after tearing a muscle in his right leg, the club said in a statement on Friday.

The Brazilian suffered the injury in training on Thursday and scans carried out on Friday confirmed that he would be out of action for around six weeks.

The 28-year-old has been plagued by a succession of injury and fitness problems in the past 12 months with local media reporting that the club wants to offload him at the end of the season.

Barca, though, were boosted on Friday by news that Argentina forward Lionel Messi hopes to have recovered from his injury in time for the Champions League semi-finals, if the Primera Liga side get past Schalke 04 in the quarters.

Former World Player of the Year Ronaldinho has been in the starting line-up in just 13 of Barcelona’s 30 league matches and came off the bench in another four, scoring a total of eight goals.

Ronaldinho last played for Barcelona in the 2-1 loss at home to Villarreal but began to complain of muscle pain in his right leg soon afterwards.

He underwent a scan to clarify the nature of the problem but it revealed no muscle or tendon injury and he was put on a training programme to deal with the complaint.