Barcelona have confirmed their midfielder Rafinha has joined Inter Milan on loan until the end of the season and the Serie A outfit have an option of signing him on a permanent transfer for €35m (£30.7m, $42.9m) and €3m in variables.

The Brazil international suffered a serious knee injury in April 2017 and was sidelined for the rest of the calendar year. He came on as a substitute in Barcelona's 1-0 defeat to Espanyol in the Copa del Rey clash on 17 January.

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Rafinha has now completed a switch to San Siro and the La Liga leaders have confirmed that he is already on Inter's payroll.

"FC Barcelona and FC Internazionale Milano have reached an agreement for the loan of the player Rafinha until June 30th 2018," a statement read on Barcelona's official website.

"FC Internazionale has an option to purchase the player for 35M euros plus 3M euros in variables, which must be confirmed before the end of the current season. FC Internazionale assumes the player's salary."

The 24-year-old came up through the ranks of the Catalan club's famous academy La Masia before breaking his way into the Barcelona B team and the first team in 2011. He spent one season on loan at Celta Vigo before returning to Camp Nou with the then new manager Luis Enrique.

Rafinha has expressed his delight after sealing a switch to Inter. The Brazilian stressed that he is at an "important stage" of his career and has set his sights to feature regularly for the Italian outfit.

"I'm really happy, it's a great feeling to be here. It's an important stage in my life and I had a lot of desire to approach this new phase in my career," Rafinha told Inter's official website.

"There have been a lot of important players at Inter who have made history. I want to do my best and give everything to finish as high as possible and win titles with this shirt."

"I hope to play in as many matches as possible and help the team to reach our objective which is Champions League qualification. It's always nice to have players who speak your language in the squad, I also know Mauro [Icardi], I've played with him before."

Rafinha
Rafinha came up through the ranks of Barcelona's youth system Getty
Barcelona FC