Barcelona could reportedly welcome Lionel Messi back to group training on Monday as it has been suggested that he will be fit to face Real Mallorca.
As noted by the club’s official site on Friday, they confirmed that the 32-year-old had suffered a minor muscle injury and trained alone on Friday as a precaution.
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It was added that he is expected to rejoin the rest of the group in a few days time, and so that would have undoubtedly raised concern amongst Barcelona fans that they could be missing their talisman with the La Liga restart around the corner.
The Catalan giants resume their season against Mallorca a week today, and with Messi having already bagged 24 goals and 16 assists in 31 games so far this campaign, it shows again just how important he remains to the team and their pursuit of success.
Fortunately for Barcelona fans, there has been a positive update offered by Sport, who claim that the Argentine icon will be given the green light to train with the rest of the group again on Monday, and they are convinced that his involvement against Mallorca is not in doubt.
That said, there is no direct suggestion that he will start, and so perhaps if the issue is still bothering him next week, the smart strategy from Barcelona would be to take no risks and use him off the bench if necessary as coach Quique Setien will be fully aware that they play almost every three days across June and July.
Sport note that the decision for Messi to train individually was largely made as a precaution as they have ruled out a serious problem. Nevertheless, the last thing that they need is to aggravate that issue, and so time will tell if the medical staff feel comfortable giving their talisman the official green light to get back to full training at the start of next week.