Carles Puyol was declared fully fit on Friday after injuring his elbow on October 2 in Barça’s 2-0 win away to Benfica-Barça. Forty-five days after suffering an injury that he was expected to take eight weeks to recover from, he is available once again for selection by Tito Vilanova.
The Barça manager has thus recovered one of the most important elements of his defence, with Gerard Piqué also back in the team. But Barça will still be missing all of Alexis, Adriano, Thiago, Muniesa, Cuenca and Abidal, plus the suspended Busquets.
Training session
All of the available players were at today’s session, as were Barça B’s Tello and goalkeeper Bañuz, while Adriano and Thiago worked separately. Víctor Valdés was given the option of a day off after becoming a father this morning, and eventually opted for a lighter session on his own just before his team-mates took to the pitch.
Meanwhile, Villa, Messi and Alves, who stayed in the gym on Thursday, trained normally on the Ciutat Esportiva pitch today.
The team has one more meeting before the Zaragoza match on Saturday night, starting at 11.30 in the Camp Nou.
