As Puyol explained on his Twitter account this Friday, he began running in training and “felt no pain at all” and he will continue to work on gradually increasing his training, after finishing the first stage of recovery based on recovering muscle tone on the injured leg.

Injury problems date back to February

Puyol was operated on after he missed three months of last season with a tendon problem in his left knee that flared up on the game against Racing on January 22nd and kept him out until the league game at Bernabeu on April 15th.

For the last month or so of the season, Guardiola had to use his captain sparingly, playing him in the two Champions League semi finals and coming on for the final few minutes of the Wembley final.