Why does Sprite.draw does not render my sprite, but Batch.render and SpriteBatch.render do?

Question

Why does this

player.sprite.draw(batch);

does not render my sprite, but

batch.draw(player.sprite.getTexture(), 0,0 );

does?

My complete render method:

public void render(float deltaTime) {
    if (assets.assetManager.update()) {
        loading = false;
        player = new Cat(assets.assetManager.get("textures/Cat.png", Texture.class));
        player.sprite.setPosition(0,0);
    }
    else
    {
        timeLoading += deltaTime;
        System.out.println("Progress: " + assets.assetManager.getProgress() * 100);
    }

    if (!loading)
    {
        rayHandler.updateAndRender();
        Gdx.gl.glClearColor(0.37f, 0.73f, 0.84f, 1f);
        Gdx.gl.glBlendFunc(GL20.GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL20.GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);                            Gdx.gl.glClear(GL20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
        processUserInput();
        player.update(deltaTime);

        orthogonalTiledMapRenderer.setView(orthographicCamera);
        orthogonalTiledMapRenderer.render();

        batch.begin();
        if (debug)
            renderDebugInfo();
        player.sprite.draw(batch);
        batch.draw(player.sprite.getTexture(), 0,0 );
        batch.end();

        batch.setProjectionMatrix(orthographicCamera.projection);
        rayHandler.setCombinedMatrix(orthographicCamera);
        orthographicCamera.update();

        world.step(1, 4, 4);
    }
}

Answer 1

I had not used the Constructor of Sprite, and set the Texture with Sprite.setTexture, but this somehow did not proper initialize the Sprite. Now with using the Constructor I can render it