Barcelona without Raphinha as La Liga restarts 44 hours after Argentina-Brazil clash
Uruguay’s Araújo also out of rescheduled Osasuna match Barça’s Flick: ‘The flight is long, it’s not the ideal situation’
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 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.
The Osasuna midfielder Enzo Boyomo may play, at least that was the hope Barcelona’s opponents hold on to, but with a day to go his manager did not know where exactly he was either, let alone what shape he was in. “We have to see if he makes it first,” Vicente Moreno said. The Cameroon international had embarked on a journey from Yaoundé to Istanbul to Madrid to Barcelona.
