Ibrahimovic had his first training session as a Barca player today. He was applauded onto the training pitch by the rest of the squad and joined in with most of the activities, showing, not surprisingly, particular effectiveness in shooting practice.
Although he signed for the club last Monday, 27th July, Ibrahimovic needed a minor operation on his
broken hand the day after and only had the plaster removed as the team were set to leave LA. So far
on the US Tour, Barca’s big name signing has had to watch the rest of the squad from the
sidelines, but today he was finally able to work out with the rest of his new team mates.
University of Washington training ground
Ibrahimovic came out on to the training pitch at the University of Washington in
Seattle and after some light ball work with Maxwell, Henrique, Alves and Keita, he was welcomed
into the session proper by the rest of the squad in the middle of the pitch.
Still in need of protection
There’s still a need to protect Ibrahimovic’s hand and so when the rest
of the squad did some more contact work, the Swedish striker worked out on his own under the
supervision of Juanjo Brau. With the stitches still in his hand from the operation, it’s
important that Ibrahimovic avoids getting sweat or dirt in the wound.
Lethal in front of goal
Back with the rest of the squad, Guardiola split up the defenders and midfielders for a
practice game, whilst Ibrahimovic joined the rest of the attackers in shooting practice, where he
showed how lethal he can be in front of goal, bagging 9 of his 10 shooting efforts with a variety
of styles from lobs to beating Valdes one-on-one.
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Iniesta and Touré miss out
Andrés Iniesta worked away from the rest of the squad with trainer Emili Ricart as he fights to get
back to full fitness, whilst Toure, who picked up a back injury against LA Galaxy also missed the
training session. The African midfielder may be back for tomorrow’s session depending on his
recovery.