This is going to sound harsh but wouldnt be suprised if Barca look at selling him next summer due to the emergence of Roberto.
Teams out there would probably pay 35/40m for him and with Roberto/Rafinha and Samper coming through it might be something they look at rather than have him on the bench.
Similar to Toure/Busi the club are quick to open up a place in the team when a young home grown player emerges to a first team regular.
Will probably be Lucho's call and I suspect he'll keep him no matter what.
I'm confident he'll pick up form again soon. We still need to see about Roberto's consistency even though he's been awesome so far, and how Rafinha recovers.