Barcelona’s best player was not at their final training session at San Joan Despi before facing Osasuna on Thursday night. Instead, as his teammates took to the practice field on Wednesday morning, Raphinha, scorer of 27 goals and provider of 20 assists this season, was still somewhere over the Atlantic.
The same was true of the defender Ronald Araújo, with the Barcelona coach, Hansi Flick, confirming that neither of them will play as La Liga restarts – 44 hours after Brazil kicked off against Argentina in a World Cup qualifier more than 10,000 miles away.
