Luis Suarez is aiming to make his Barcelona debut against Real Madrid and has less than a month of his biting ban left to serve.
Suarez’s suspension is over on October 24 with the first Clasico of the season, at Santiago Bernabeu, to be played a day later.
The Uruguay international was banned for four months by FIFA after biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup.
Suarez was initially barred from ‘all football activity,’ which included training sessions or setting foot in a stadium, but was allowed to leave Liverpool for La Blaugrana.
An appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport failed to reduce the length of the ban but did result in Suarez being allowed to play friendlies for club and country and train with his team.
In 29 days from Friday he will be able to turn out for Barca in competitive games and the plan for Luis Enrique is to have Suarez ready to face Madrid, Mundo Deportivo reports.
Suarez this week played for Barca B against Indonesia Under-19s and will be involved in Uruguay’s October friendlies to further build-up his fitness.
Enrique will decide if to include Suarez against Madrid based on the player’s fitness and it’s possible Suarez is named as a substitute.
MD add that Madrid had wanted to sign Suarez but were trumped by Barca, and that claims from the capital that they pulled out of the transfer after the bite are false.
Suarez is said to have been in ‘advanced negotiations’ with Los Blancos, only to pull out when the interest of Barca became clear.
