Barcelona to be without versatile player for El Clasico as injury absence confirmed | OneFootball

Barcelona have recovered key players ahead of Saturday’s El Clasico showdown at the Santiago Bernabeu. Gavi, Fermin Lopez and Dani Olmo will all be in contention to start against Real Madrid, although it is now certain that Hansi Flick’s defensive options for the trip will be limited.

During the warm-up before last weekend’s fixture against Sevilla, which Barcelona won 5-1, Eric Garcia – who was set to start – pulled up with a muscular problem. He also missed the victory over Bayern Munich, although there was hope that he’d be able to return in time to travel to the Spanish capital.

Unfortunately for Barcelona, this won’t be the case. Adria Albets has reported that Garcia has again absent from training on Friday, meaning that he will be not available to face Real Madrid.

Garcia has often played in midfield in recent weeks, although he has also been Barcelona’s third-choice central defender because of the long-term injuries to Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen. Flick will be nervous about this absence, although he’ll hope that it doesn’t have too much of an effect.