The six players picked for Spain, the Dutchman Afellay, and the Brazilian Alves joined this Wednesday afternoon’s training session. The only internationals who haven’t returned yet are the three Argentine players.
It’s expected that the FC Barcelona players who played early this morning with Argentina,
Messi, Mascherano and Milito, will train with the first team on Thursday morning. These three are
the only internationals still to return to the club after Villa, Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta,
Valdes and Pique, plus Afellay and Alves were already back this afternoon at the session that took
place at the training ground.
After a few days exercising with the family, Pep Guardiola directed training with 17 players.
In addition to the internationals, Fontàs, Montoya, Thiago, Jonathan dos Santos and Jordi Masip,
also took part.
Pedro and Maxwell worked on the pitch
The two injured players, Pedro and Maxwell, took a step forward in their recovery.
The two players, who the last few days have been in the process of training rehabilitation, worked
on the pitch for the first time since their injuries.
Meanwhile, Bojan Krkic and Carles Puyol worked in the gym, recovering from their respective
injuries.
Ovation for Alves and Pinto
Due to the international break, it’s been almost 10 days since the
team trained together. With almost all the internationals back home, the players took advantage of
the situation and gathered together in the centre of the training pitch to congratulate Dani Alves
and José Manuel Pinto, who in the last few days have completed their contract renewal with FC
Barcelona.
The next training session will be this Thursday at 11 a.m. at the Joan Gamper training
ground. The session will be closed to the media.