Although the results have largely been in their favor, there is no doubt that FC Barcelona have been significantly impacted by the absences of all the important players who are recovering from their injuries at this initial phase of the season.
Last Thursday, Hansi Flick saw his perfect Barcelona record come to an end, as his side fell to a 2-1 defeat to Monaco in their opening UEFA Champions League match. But the loss of the three points was not the only negative to take home from this game.
The two midfielders, Pedri and Marc Casado, both suffered some physical issues in this match and as SPORT has reported, neither of them participated in the last training session ahead of the match against Villarreal.
However, the problems faced by these two players are not too serious, and they are likely to be ready for this upcoming game on Sunday. For today, they only worked in the gym to recover from their minor contusions. Thus, fortunately, Flick is not likely to have any more absences in the midfield.
Marc Bernal also arrived at the training facilities on crutches, and undertook his recovery work quite close to where the rest of the team was training. Gavi and Frenkie de Jong once again completed a partial training session with the rest of the group, as they have been doing for the last few days.
From the youth academy, Flick once again called up the cousins Guille and Toni Fernandez, while the center-back Andres Cuenca also joined them. All of these players were already a part of the Blaugrana team’s Champions League squad, and have not been called up by Albert Sanchez for his Barcelona Atletic side.
Thus, these three players are likely to travel with the rest of the team to Estadio La Ceramica on Sunday.
