Barcelona began on Monday preparations for their Champions League quarter-final first leg against Atlético Madrid on Wednesday, and there was a notable absence from the session.
Frenkie de Jong was not among the players who trained under Hansi Flick’s orders on Monday as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury, and the Dutchman is not expected to feature in Wednesday’s clash along with the injured Raphinha, Andreas Christensen and Marc Bernal.
Flick and his staff hope to have Frenkie back at
least for a few minutes in the weekend derby against Espanyol in La Liga, which would serve as a warm-up for De Jong to have the midfielder ready for the second leg against Atlético in the capital.
The absences of Frenkie and Bernal leave a big question mark in midfield: Gavi is not quite ready to start just yet, leaving Eric Garcia and Marc Casadó as the two options to start alongside Pedri at Camp Nou.
