Summer signing Neymar could make his first appearance in a Barcelona shirt on Tuesday, as he is named in the squad to face Lechia Gdansk.
Despite only reporting in for preseason work with his new teammates on Monday, it had been generally assumed beforehand that if fit the 21-year-old would feature in the Catalans’ trip out to Poland today.
The €57m signing’s presence in the squad was seen as ‘compensation’ from Barca to Lechia for having to rearrange this preseason date from its original July 20 place, due to Tito Vilanova’s shock resignation the day before.
Whilst indications from a first round of medical checks left reports unclear as to Neymar’s inclusion, after competing in a first training session in the evening, the striker has been named in the squad.
All those involved in the friendlies against Bayern Munich and Valerenga have been included also, except for Javier Mascherano.
New Coach Gerardo Martino will not be directing the travelling party, instead handing that responsibility over to assistants Jordi Roura and Rubi, so that he can stay in Barcelona to work through a double training session with Mascherano, Dani Alves and the Spain internationals who returned to work yesterday.
Barcelona squad to play Lechia Gdansk: Pinto, Oier, Montoya, Bartra, Adriano, Song, Sergi Roberto, Dos Santos, Messi, Tello, Neymar, Alexis, Sergi Gómez, Planas, Joan Román, Dani Nieto, Bagnack, Samper, Ilie, Patric, Dongou, Espinosa and Kiko Femenía
