Márquez and Miltio return

Rafael Márquez and Gaby Milito are th etwo new faces that have been named in the Barça squad to travel to Germany to face Schalke 04 in midweek, while Deco has not yet recovered.


The defensive duo have overcome their respective injuries and have been named in Frank Rijkaard's squad for the match in Gelsenkirchen in the Champions League. Márquez and Milito have been brought in while Santi Ezquerro and young Víctor Sánchez miss out. In contrast, Deco was not given the green light to travel, despite training with the rest of the squad on Sunday morning. The club's medical services reported: "The progress of the player is going well, but he not recovered in time and will continue to work to be available for the next game."

Samuel Eto'o suffered a calf strain in the match against Betis on Saturday, but according to the club doctors "the forward is having treatment and how he responds in the next few hours will influence whether he is available for the game."

Training session

The squad took to the pitch in front of La Masia on Sunday morning having spent almost an hour in the changing room analysing the game from the night before. All the players were present, apart from the injured trio of Lionel Messi, Oleguer Presas and Albert Jorquera. Márquez, Milito and Deco were all not involved in the Ruiz de Lopera, but trained while Ronaldinho was also working on his personal recovery programme.

Youngsters Víctor Sánchez, Guerra, Eneko, Córcoles, Rueda, Abraham, Fali and Planchería were all invited to train with the first team squad.