Barcelona are close to full fitness after a month plagued by injuries, but one of their key players looks as if they will be missing for several weeks yet.
Pedri has recovered from his hamstring problem, a month later than expected, and Xavi Hernandez confirmed he would be in the squad to face Real Sociedad on Saturday evening. He joins Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Jules Kounde, who were all on the bench against El Clasico.
Frenkie de Jong will not be present though. The Dutchman underwent a fitness test on Friday, but still had pain in his leg after his muscle injury, ruling him out of the Real Sociedad clash. Sport say he is unlikely to return to action before the end of November.
With Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday, and Alaves at home the following weekend, the Catalan daily say that they do not want to take risks with de Jong, and thus he is likely to sit out both of those matches. The next game he would be available for is a trip to Vallecas to face Rayo Vallecano on the 25th of November.
The fact that Barcelona will probably see Shakhtar and Alaves as winnable matches without de Jong probably plays a part in that thinking. It is not yet clear whether de Jong will be fit to go on international duty to with the Netherlands, which explains the break between the Alaves and the Rayo tie. With the Dutch in desperate need of results to qualify for the Euros, they are more likely to risk de Jong, and thus Barcelona may be leaning towards resting him more too.
