FCBARCELONA.CAT

07.01.2008 11:18

Oleguer back with the squad

Marc Guillén / Anna Segura

The Catalan defender resumed training with the rest of his team-mates on Monday morning ahead of Wednesday’s Cup match against Sevilla.

Oleguer Presas returned to training with the rest of the squad on Monday morning and was greeted – as is customary when a player returns from injury – by applause from his team-mates. Although he has not yet been fully cleared for action by Club doctors, Oleguer is now in the final stage of his recovery. He suffered his injury at the end of November and has been following a specific individual training programme since then. During this time he has missed 8 matches, 2 in Europe, 5 in the Spanish league and 1 in the Spanish Cup.

Thoughts on Sevilla, without Touré

Training continued today without Touré Yaya, who has already joined up with his Ivory Coast team-mates to prepare the upcoming CAF Africa Cup of Nations. The session was the first after last weekend’s win against Mallorca and focussed on the Cup game against Sevilla.

Ronaldinho continued with his individualised programme and did not make an appearance on the La Masía training grounds. Meanwhile, Messi also continued with his recovery from injury and did a number of circuits at La Masía with and without the ball.

More work for the subs

As usual, the players that took part in the match against Mallorca were treated to a rather shorter, lighter session designed to recover tired muscles. Special care was taken with Puyol, who suffered a blow to his right knee against Mallorca.

Oleguer only took part in the first part of the session and then returned to the changing rooms. The remaining players (excluding Saturday’s starting eleven) did some circuits and then divided into two teams for a training match.

Giovani dos Santos stayed rather longer to work with fitness coach Albert Roca.