Barcelona's Ronald Araujo reveals he is carrying a knee injury

The Uruguay international played the full 120 minutes of Wednesday's Copa del Rey quarter-final against Athletic Bilbao, which Xavi's side lost 4-2 after extra-time.

Araujo was able to complete the contest despite seemingly struggling with a knee issue, and the defender has said that he is currently playing through the pain barrier in a bid to help the team.

«Well, the truth is that it bothers me. I've had it for a couple of weeks now, but I always want to be there,» Mundo Deportivo quotes the 24-year-old as saying after the clash at San Mames.

Araujo is one of three Barcelona players to suffer issues against Athletic, with Alejandro Balde taken off in the first half due to a thigh issue, while Andreas Christensen picked up a calf problem.

«The truth is that it is sad to lose this match, we wanted to fight for this title. The game was very difficult, Athletic are a great team and at their ground even more so. Here the crowd always pushes. I'm proud of the team because we competed,» the defender added.

«They scored against us in the last minute of extra-time, maybe we should have been smarter to hold on.

»It's a hard blow because we were eliminated. We have two more competitions. La Liga, where we have two home games coming up and then we also have the Champions League. We have two titles left and we will fight until the end."

Xavi's future as head coach has again been called into question following the cup defeat, and Araujo said that the manager's fate «depends on the board», but he insisted that the players at the club are still fully behind the 44-year-old.

«Xavi's future depends on the board, we can't intervene. But trust