FCBARCELONA.CAT

15.08.2009 20:30

Messi out of first squad list of the season

www.fcbarcelona.cat

Guardiola’s squad for the team’s first official game of the season has one very noticeable absentee: Messi, who has not recovered from a thigh strain picked up midweek. In contrast, Henry does make the squad, whilst Henrique and Jorquera miss out.

Guardiola is taking 19 players to the San Mames: Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Maxwell, Abidal, Puyol, Piqué, Fontàs, Muniesa, Touré, Keita, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Busquets, Bojan, Pedro, Jeffren, Henry and Jonathan Dos Santos.

As well as the injured Messi, Iniesta, Marquez and Ibrahimovic are also missing for the trip to Bilbao where Barca will be aiming to get a good result ahead of next weekend’s second leg at the Nou Camp.

Márquez and Messi train apart

At Saturday evening’s training, which started at 19.0O at the Ciutat Esportiva, Guardiola called up four of his young reserve players Muniesa, Fontàs, Dos Santos and Jeffren. Iniesta trained apart from the rest of the players, as did Marquez and Messi, though the Argentinean did join the rest of the squad for the warm up session. The squad was completed by the internationals who’d been away on duty during the week, whilst Víctor Sánchez, who is finalising his move to Jerez, was absent.