Aleix Vidal out for a week after pulling his right adductor muscle
The player is currently expected to miss the Champions League tie against Atlético and the next league match away to real Sociedad.
In a statement from the Barcelona medical team earlier today, we were advised that Aleix Vidal has pulled the adductor muscle in his right leg which is likely to have him out for at least a week. The effect of this is that the right sided player will miss the next two games for the club, at home to Atlético on Tuesday 5 April and the weekend league fixture away to Real Sociedad. This news comes at a bad time for the club with other wide players also being on the side-lines, namely Mathieu and Adriano.
The replacement options avaialble to manager Luis Enrique include Sergi Roberto or Thomas Vermaelen, the latter of which is not unaccustomed to the wider position after being used there many times for his national side, Belgium. At least Jordi Alba, who had taken a knock, seems fine and trained pretty much fully alongside the rest of the squad ahead of the visit of Atlético.
There were a number of 'glum' faces trundling out of the training session led by Aleix and Munir. behind them came the coach, Enrique, who looked a bit more positive and Dani Alves who seemed to be away in his own world. The MSN trident followed alongside Piqué and Alba and the positive message was that both Alba and Neymar had trained well after looking slight doubts due to niggles reported after El Clásico.
But Barça can't afford to waste time thinking too much about what went wrong against bitter rivals Real Madrid. They must turn their attention immediately to the Madrid neighbours who will be arriving on their doorstep in no time. Most assume that Enrique will again put his trust in the same starting 11 that lost at the weekend with one change, that of Ter Stegen in goal.