The most important game for FC Barcelona at this stage of the season is arriving as the Catalans are set to face Real Madrid in their upcoming La Liga game. Real Madrid are currently leading the table jointly with Girona with 25 points, and Barcelona are in third place with only a single-point gap.
However, the coming El Clasico will not be easy for Xavi in any way, especially with most of the first-team players out with injuries.
Xavi categorically stated yesterday that he will not take any risks with the players who are nearing their returns from injury and will play only those players who are feeling well enough to feature in such a physically demanding game.
Xavi rules out Kounde and Roberto
Furthermore, as SPORT has reported, Xavi was also directly asked about the players who would be able to play in this match. Xavi confirmed that Sergi Roberto and Jules Kounde will not be ready for this match but left everything open to the imagination for the rest of the injured players, including Pedri, Frenkie de Jong, Lewandowski, and Raphinha.
Thus, the latter four are not ruled out for the Real Madrid match. As already reported here, Pedri is one of the players who is the closest to making his return and can get some minutes against Shakhtar Donetsk before the Real Madrid match as well. However, once again, no risks will be taken.
Four players not ruled out
Lewandowski is also progressing well and seems to be on track to be ready for El Clasico. Furthermore, Raphinha and Frenkie de Jong are also not ruled out, but it remains to be seen whether they can make it in time to get into the squad against Real Madrid.
The absence of such important players has effectively crippled Xavi’s team, who has had to rely on players from the subsidiary to complete his squad for the last game. However, this problem for the club turned out to be an opportunity for Marc Guiu, one of the youngsters who had a magical last night against Athletic Club, as he scored only 23 seconds into his senior team debut.