The Barça full back joins Iniesta and Alexis on the sidelines after failing to recover from the flu in time. But the captain has recovered from his fractured cheekbone and returns to the squad.
Tito Vilanova has named 19 players (17 from the first team plus Tello and Deulofeu of Barça B) for the Liga match against Getafe on Saturday (20.00)
The squad
Valdés, Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Mascherano, Song, Cesc, Xavi, Villa, Messi, Thiago, Pinto, Bartra, Sergio, Pedro, Montoya, Adriano, Tello and Deulofeu.
A bout of the flu meant that Jordi Alba was missing from today’s final training session before travelling to Getafe, and it has been announced that he has been left out of the plans for the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez. Andrés Iniesta is also out with the hamstring injury he sustained in Georgia while Alexis Sánchez has a torn thigh muscle, and trained this morning in isolation.
Puyol returns
But as the injuries pile up on the one hand, on the other there is good news for Carles Puyol, who fractured a cheekbone against Osasuna has been given medical clearance to play against Getafe. Despite having to wear a facemask, he was one of the 21 players that trained this morning at the Ciudad Deportiva. Apart from Andreu Fontàs and Jonathan dos Santos, all of those will be travelling to the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez, i.e. all 17 available members of his first team plus Barça B’s Tello and Deulofeu.