{"id":371002,"date":"2025-11-11T07:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T07:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/371002\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T07:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T07:09:10","slug":"flick-expects-to-recover-two-key-barcelona-stars-for-athletic-club-clash-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/371002\/","title":{"rendered":"Flick expects to recover two key Barcelona stars for Athletic Club clash &#8211; report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The third international break of the 2025\/26 season has arrived, and FC Barcelona go into it having reduced Real Madrid\u2019s lead in the table to three points after a 4-2 win over Celta Vigo, while the Merengues were held to a goalless draw by Rayo Vallecano.<\/p>\n<p>It will be two weeks without football for the Blaugrana, time that will allow Hansi Flick to recover some of his injured players.<\/p>\n<p>Raphinha and Joan Garcia poised for return<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sport.es\/es\/noticias\/barca\/paron-recuperar-joan-garcia-raphinha-123552129\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SPORT<\/a>, Flick expects two of his very crucial stars \u2013 Raphinha and Joan Garcia \u2013 to recover in time for Barcelona\u2019s next match.<\/p>\n<p>The reigning La Liga champions will take on Athletic Club, possibly at the Spotify Camp Nou, right after the international break on 22 November.<\/p>\n<p>The expectation is that Barcelona\u2019s medical staff will give Garcia and Raphinha the green light to return for that encounter.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"693\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fc-barcelona-v-getafe-cf-laliga-ea-sports-1024x693.jpg\" alt=\"Joan Garcia, Barcelona player\" class=\"wp-image-180896\"  \/>Return very close. (Photo by Judit Cartiel\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Both players picked up injuries in the game against Real Oviedo in late September, and their absences have hurt the Catalan giants on the pitch.<\/p>\n<p>Raphinha was understood to be close to a return before El Clasico, but a setback in training extended his spell out on the sidelines.<\/p>\n<p>As for Garcia, <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/boost-for-barcelona-as-summer-signing-returns-to-group-training-at-spotify-camp-nou-before-celta-clash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">he has been training on the pitch for a week now<\/a>, and the expectation is that he will be ready in time to face the Basque club later this month.<\/p>\n<p>If it happens, it will be a major boost for Barcelona as both Raphinha and Garcia are very important players for Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>Even though the likes of Marcus Rashford and Wojciech Szczesny have stepped up in their absences, having the injured pair back will be a shot in the arm that the Blaugrana need as they hope to overthrow Real Madrid and claim the top spot in the table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The third international break of the 2025\/26 season has arrived, and FC Barcelona go into it having reduced&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":371003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[15295,1386,4444,5727,54921,4819,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-371002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-athletic-club","9":"tag-barcelona","10":"tag-barcelona-news","11":"tag-fc-barcelona","12":"tag-joan-garcia","13":"tag-raphinha","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115529814561276898","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}