FC Barcelona has confirmed a comeback from injury for one of its first team stars.
FC Barcelona has confirmed a comeback from injury for one of its first team stars through social media, and on the cusp of Xavi Hernandez’s men hosting Las Palmas in La Liga on Saturday.
Ferran Torres has been out of action since late January after tests revealed he injured the biceps femoris muscle in his right hamstring shortly before Barca took on Osasuna at the Montjuic Stadium.
There have been a couple of false dawns as per him joining Xavi’s matchday squad again. Initially, many outlets reported Torres’ expected absence as four to five weeks, which has long since passed and extended to eight in total.
Torres was tipped to help Barca take on Napoli in a Champions League last 16 second leg clash against Napoli on March 12, but the manager revealed in a pre-match press conference to preview the tie that the following Sunday’s trip to Madrid for a showdown with Atleti at the Metropolitano was a more realistic target.
As things turned out, Torres played no part in the 3-0 win heralded as Barca’s best performance of the season so far, which helped them snatch second place from Catalan neighbours Girona ahead of the international break.
With club football once more dominating the calendar, though, Torres will finally make the cut as revealed through a social media post and the publishing of the squad list on Saturday afternoon.
In another sitdown before the media, Xavi also revealed that the former Manchester City attacker is fit enough to perhaps get a run out.
“He’s fine and he’ll be there this weekend,” Xavi said.
“He’s been feeling very good in this week of training. We played two games against the youth team to get in shape and people like Marcos [Alonso] and Ferran have done very well. I’m happy for Ferran because he’s important.
“He can play in all five attacking positions we have. He’s played in practically all of them. He’s a footballer who gives you a lot of variety. He operates well at the foot of the defence and into space, and he has goalscoring ability. He gives us so much.”
Moving forward, Ferran should primarily provide positional rivalry to Joao Felix and Vitor Roque on the left wing or Raphinha and Lamine Yamal on the opposite channel as Barca prepares to try and knock PSG out of the UCL and maintain pressure on leaders Real Madrid at the La Liga summit.
