On Saturday morning, Barça manager Luis Enrique announced the names of the eighteen players that will be in his squad to host Alavés in La Liga later on in the day (8.30pm CET).
German goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen is not included after pulling his hamstring (the semimembranosus muscle to be precise). But despite doubts this week concerning their fitness, all of Leo Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Jérémy Mathieu and André Gomes have been declared fully fit.
All of those players have been included in squad, apart from André Gomes, who has been left out of the team along with Gerard Piqué and Sergi Roberto. The game with Alavés comes on the back of a busy international schedule for most of the players and just three days before the visit of Celtic to the Camp Nou for the opening Champions League fixture.
The complete squad is thus as follows: Cillessen, Masip, Rakitic, Sergio, Denis, Arda, Iniesta, Suárez, Messi, Neymar Jr, Rafinha, Mascherano, Paco Alcácer, Jordi Alba, Digne, Aleix Vidal, Umtiti and Mathieu.
That means the first ever appearance in a Barça squad for new signing Paco Alcácer, and also the first of the season for Neymar Jr, who is back from international duty for Brazil at the Olympics and World Cup qualifiers,
