Piqué's ankle woes are in the past: "I'm back"
The centre-back published a photo of himself working out on sand. It looks like he will be fit to return for the Málaga game on 19 November.
Back in business
There was good news for Barcelona on Tuesday. Gerard Piqué published a couple of photographs of himself training on his official Twitter account with a simple caption - in English: “I'm back”. The central defender suffered damage to the lateral internal ligament in his right ankle as a consequence of a brutal tackle by Manchester City's David Silva in the Champions League. Since then he has gradually been working himself back to full fitness. In the photographs published this afternoon, Piqué can be seen putting himself through an energetic workout on sand - a technique which is good for strengthening ligaments and muscles in the lower legs.
Key fixtures coming up
It indicates that Piqué could return to the team for the next match, the Week 12 meeting with Málaga at Camp Nou on 19 November. But the defender will be taking his return with patience as to not suffer a relapse. Barça have three key encounters on the horizon: apart from Málaga, the team has to visit Real Sociedad at Anoeta then Celtic in Glasgow before taking on Real Madrid at home in El Clásico.
A reduced squad continues to train in Sant Joan Despí with just Masip, Rafinha and Paco Alcácer as the only first team players who are fully fit. Jordi Alba, Mathieu and Aleix Vidal continue with their own respective recovery programmes. In the meantime Luis Enrique has been making up the numbers by drafting in players from the reserves - Marlon, Nili, Mujica, Abeledo, Carbonell, Romera, Martínez and Josep Suárez all taking part in this morning's session.