Barcelona star Raphinha has Osasuna in his sights

The Brazilian winger has been spared the injury woes that often plague top stars and has dodged suspensions entirely this term.

Rotation? He barely knows the meaning of the word. Raphinha has been a near-ever-present figure in the starting XI, with just one exception haunting his otherwise flawless record.

That rare moment on the bench came in the first meeting with Osasuna earlier this season. Manager Hansi Flick opted to rest his star man, and the decision backfired as Barcelona slipped to a defeat at El Sadar. It's a memory that still stings for the 28-year-old.

Aside from that game and a brief absence against Barbastro due to minor muscle discomfort, Raphinha has been nailed on from the first whistle. Of Barcelona's 40 matches across La Liga, the Champions League, the Copa del Rey, and the Spanish Super Cup, he's started all but two, missing the Barbastro clash and watching the Osasuna loss unfold from the sidelines. In fact, he's gone the distance in 23 of those games.

Tonight, Raphinha has a chance to settle the score. In that first encounter with Osasuna, Flick brought him on with just 30 minutes left, but the damage was done, and Barcelona couldn't recover.

Since then, the German boss has rarely tinkered with his talisman's place in the side. "He's a player who thrives on rhythm," Flick has said of his winger's relentless availability. Across five meetings with Osasuna, Raphinha has only found the net once, a late winner in his debut La Liga season, sealing a 1-0 triumph with five minutes to spare. In the other four, including a Super Cup semi-final, he's drawn a blank, and that lone defeat in the first half of this campaign still rankles.

The Brazilian heads into this clash in red-hot form. Midweek, he fired Barcelona to a gritty 1-0 win over Benfica in the Champions League, a match where the Catalans had to dig deep.

As of this weekend, Raphinha boasts 25 goals and 16 assists across all competitions this season. In La Liga alone, his 13 strikes put him level with Athletic Club's Oihan Sancet as the joint-fourth top scorer, while his seven league assists underline his all-round impact.

READ MORE: Samuel Eto'o wins CAS appeal to return to CAF election race