Barcelona have flown to England for a preseason stage at St George's Park, the English FA's national training center, where Hansi Flick's squad will work through August 3. The trip includes a friendly against Birmingham City at St Andrew's, with Barcelona president Joan Laporta due to travel over to watch it. Flick called up a full group of 31 players, and two of the names on that list are the story.

The first is Marc-Andre ter Stegen. The Germany goalkeeper is on the verge of a loan move to Ajax, with the two clubs reported to have reached a verbal agreement, and yet he boarded the plane with the rest of the squad. Under the loan terms being discussed, Ajax would take on a portion of his wages and, crucially, give him the regular playing time he was not going to get at Barcelona this season.

The second is Frenkie de Jong, who is traveling despite continuing to recover from a serious knee injury. His inclusion is less about minutes and more about keeping a key player integrated with the group, working under the medical staff's eye and around teammates rather than rehabbing in isolation.

Both decisions point at the same idea, and it is one worth stealing. A player who is leaving and a player who is injured are still part of the group until the moment they are not. Barcelona did not leave Ter Stegen behind to sulk while paperwork drags, and they did not tuck De Jong away in a separate rehab bubble. Both are with the squad.

For a US coach, the injured-player piece is the more useful of the two. The instinct with a long-term injury is often to send the player off to a trainer and check back in weeks later. That is efficient and lonely, and it is how you lose a kid's head before their body is even ready. Keeping them around the group protects their identity as a member of the team.

There are practical ways to do this at the youth level. An injured U16 can run the clock and score in small-sided games, help set up sessions, sit in on the pre-match talk, and travel to away games when it is feasible. None of that speeds up the ligament, but all of it tells the player they still belong, which speeds up everything about their return that is mental.

The Ter Stegen situation carries a different lesson, about how you handle the player everyone knows is leaving. Freezing him out early would sour the room. Barcelona are keeping him professional and present until the transfer is done, which is the mature version of a departure that could otherwise turn ugly.

Your version of this arrives every spring, when a player has told you they are moving clubs or aging out. The temptation is to check out on them the moment you hear it. Barcelona's example says the opposite: they are still yours until they walk out the door, so treat them that way and the rest of the group learns how they will be treated when their own time comes.