FC Barcelona are set to take on Real Madrid next following their recent victory over Olympiacos in the UEFA Champions League. Fortunately, La Blaugrana might just end up receiving a huge boost as well before El Clasico.
That boost, according to AS, could arrive in the form of Raphinha’s return to the squad. The Brazilian forward has been dealing with an injury since quite some time now and his recovery took longer than expected.
However, he has now rejoined group training and even completed a part of the session recently with his teammates. Moreover, he is expected to take part in the full session on Thursday and be cleared on Saturday ahead of the clash against Los Blancos in La Liga.
Pedri and Raphinha of FC Barcelona warms up during a training session before the Copa del Rey Final Match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid at Estadio de La Cartuja.
Photo by Fran Santiago/Getty Images
This is a huge boost for Barcelona and for Hansi Flick, who already saw Ferran Torres return from injury and be included in the latest squad list. With Raphinha now looking to return soon as well, that is another great positive for the team ahead of a very important fixture.
At the same time, however, his role in El Clasico might not be a starting one. After all, a return from an injury like that means that the player will not exactly be at their best or sharpest, so a more realistic expectation could be that having him on the bench itself would be a big boost in many different ways for the team.