Andres Iniesta’s muscle knock rules him out of Barcelona’s trip to Villarreal in La Liga this afternoon.
Iniesta has been suffering from muscular problems, which were enough to see him excluded from the latest Spain squad, and coupled with Luis Enrique’s reluctance to risk him, Arda Turan is named alongside Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic in central midfield.
Elsewhere for the Catalans, Claudio Bravo is back in goal, Gerard Pique returns from his Champions League suspension against Arsenal and Dani Alves is substituted in favour of Sergi Roberto, fresh from his maiden call-up by La Roja, but Rafinha is left out, despite the Brazilian being given the all-clear to return from a serious knee injury.
Villarreal, meanwhile, make just the one change from Thursday’s goalless draw at Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League, with Manuel Trigueros replacing Tomas Pina.
Villarreal: Asenjo; Mario, Bailly, Ruiz, Rukavina; Castillejo, Bruno, Trigueros, D Suarez; Soldado, Bakambu
Subs: Barbosa, Marin, Bonera, Pedraza, Pina, Adrian, Baptistao
Barcelona: Bravo; Sergi, Pique, Mascherano, Alba; Busquets, Rakitic, Arda; Messi, Suarez, Neymar
Subs: Ter Stegen, Bartra, Alves, Adriano, Mathieu, Vidal, Munir
Referee: Sanchez Martinez
