Barcelona centre-back Gerard Pique reportedly engaged in a dressing-room spat with manager Xavi over his lack of game time at Camp Nou.
The 35-year-old has dropped down the pecking order in Catalonia following the summer acquisitions of Jules Kounde and Andreas Christensen from Sevilla and Chelsea respectively.
Eric Garcia and Ronald Araujo are also preferred in defence to Pique, who has made just two appearances in all competitions for Xavi's side in the 2022-23 season.
The former Manchester United man played 45 minutes of his side's 5-1 opening Champions League win over Viktoria Plzen before playing the full 90 in a 4-0 La Liga win over Cadiz three days later.
However, Pique has otherwise been an unused substitute in La Blaugrana's other six matches this season, and tensions with Xavi supposedly hit boiling point against Bayern Munich.
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Barcelona fell to a 2-0 defeat to Julian Nagelsmann's side with Pique on the bench, and The Mirror claims that the centre-back complained to his teammates over his lack of action.
Xavi - who shared a dressing room with Pique as a player - overheard his comment and quickly responded with: "And you are going to play even less now."
Pique is then said to have fallen silent along with the rest of the Barcelona squad, and the powers-that-be at Camp Nou are supposedly hoping that the Spain international will terminate his deal.
Pique remains contracted to the Catalan giants until the summer of 2024, but Barcelona are supposedly waiting for him to honour a previous promise he made, where he claimed that he would not retire as a substitute at Barcelona.
The defender has entered his 15th season as a Barcelona player after returning from Manchester United in the summer of 2008 and has amassed 53 goals and 15 assists from 608 appearances in that time.
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Pique has won a total of 30 major honours with La Blaugrana, including three Champions Leagues, eight La Liga titles, three Club World Cups, seven Copa del Reys, three UEFA Super Cups and six Supercopa de Espana crowns.
The Spaniard's 608 appearances for Barcelona puts him fifth in the club's all-time list, only behind Lionel Messi (778), Xavi (767), Sergio Busquets (685) and Andres Iniesta (674).
Xavi was asked about Pique's lack of game time by reporters earlier this month, and the Barcelona boss insisted that he had warned his former teammate about the increased competition for starts.
"I spoke to him just before we went on holiday. I was very clear and told him that we would strengthen and that it wouldn't be easy," Xavi said last month.
"It's too early to make any assessments. He is a player who can help us in another type of role. We'll see how it goes, it depends on his feelings and mine. There is competition for everyone and I try to choose the best to win the games."
Barcelona have won each of their last five games in La Liga to occupy second spot in the table - two points behind reigning champions Real Madrid.
Ben Knapton
