{"id":303956,"date":"2025-11-24T15:07:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T15:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/303956\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T15:07:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T15:07:30","slug":"barcelona-handed-major-fitness-boost-ahead-of-chelsea-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/303956\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona Handed Major Fitness Boost Ahead of Chelsea Match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_bx2s2hvfl\">Barcelona are hoping to have Marcus Rashford healthy for Tuesday\u2019s Champions League match against Chelsea, after recovering from a bout of flu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_opeaduuh1\">Rashford was sidelined for the weekend\u2019s <a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/barcelona-player-ratings-vs-athletic-club-camp-nou-return-turns-out-special\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">4\u20130 win over Athletic Club<\/a> in La Liga, the first game since joining the club on loan from Manchester United that he\u2019s played no part in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_7jwbsw79m\">The England international had started 12 of the previous 13 matches in <a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/la-liga\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">La Liga<\/a> and the<a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/champions-league\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Champions League<\/a>, having firmly forced his way into Hansi Flick\u2019s strongest lineup.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">FREE NEWSLETTER. New SI FC Newsletter Global Embed. Sign Up to Get Informed With SI FC. dark<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_093n6n88s\"><a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/team\/barcelona\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Barcelona <\/a>didn\u2019t actually miss Rashford on their Camp Nou return, with replacement Ferran Torres scoring twice in the win. But it will be a boost to have him back to face Chelsea this week.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Marcus Rashford\" title=\"Marcus Rashford\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Marcus Rashford had become undroppable before going down sick. \/ Alex Caparros\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_1jmouhy2q\">After missing two training sessions with the flu prior to the Athletic Club test, Rashford reported for practice on Sunday at the same time as the rest of his teammates, per <a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sport.es\/es\/noticias\/barca\/rashford-vuelve-pedri-descartado-124026887\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SPORT<\/a>. The plan is for him to have two days of training to rebuild his fitness and then be part of the group that flies to London on Monday afternoon ahead of the match the next day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_q03e50g50\">The question for Flick is whether he rewards Torres by keeping him in the team, or immediately restores Rashford. A lot is likely to depend on how match sharp the latter is.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Pedri for Barcelona\" title=\"Pedri for Barcelona\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pedri has been sensational ever since the arrival of Hansi Flick.  \/ Alex Caparros\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_8ih73tlfw\">One player who won\u2019t return from injury just yet is Pedri.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_ml7qirf0e\">The influential midfield metronome hasn\u2019t featured since the <a class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_aoxits\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/barcelona-player-ratings-vs-real-madrid-blaugrana-slump-el-clasico-defeat-10-26-25\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cl\u00e1sico defeat<\/a> against Real Madrid on Oct. 26 due to a hamstring problem. Rumors of a quick recovery and potential return after the November international proved to be wide of the mark, while Pedri, unlike Rashford, has not been involved in team training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_svhkb96pf\">On the plus side for Barcelona, Frenkie de Jong should return to the lineup well rested, after missing the Athletic Club match because of a domestic suspension in La Liga.<\/p>\n<p>READ THE LATEST BARCELONA NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona are hoping to have Marcus Rashford healthy for Tuesday\u2019s Champions League match against Chelsea, after recovering from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-303956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}