Ronaldinho's injury unrelated to previous one say club

MADRID (Reuters) - Ronaldinho's latest injury is unrelated to the problem which kept him out of Barcelona's last five matches, the Primera Liga side's medical team said on Saturday.

The club said on Friday he had torn a muscle in his right leg and would be out of action for around six weeks, effectively ruling him out for the rest of the season.

"The injury has no link with the other one," Ricard Pruna told a news conference. "This one happened in an incident with Edmilson in training on Thursday."

The Brazil forward last played for Barca in the 2-1 league defeat at home to Villarreal on March 9, and was left out of the next squad for the 2-2 draw away to Almeria, with coach Frank Rijkaard saying he was injured.

After the Almeria game, Barca's medical team put out a statement to say that they had done a scan on a muscle in his right leg, in a similar area to the latest injury, and that there was no evidence of a muscle or tendon injury.

The 28-year-old was put on a specific plan to recover from the problems that remained.

Since then the nature of Ronaldinho's injury has been subject of intense media speculation as he failed to make the Barca squad amid reports that the club were looking to offload him, with his most likely destination Italy.

He has suffered a string of injury and fitness problems over the last year and been criticised by local media for his training habits and lifestyle away from the pitch.

Pruna added: "It is our job to explain to the player what has happened and why, and he has a lot to think about as to why he is injured."