Gavi passed fit for Barcelona’s La Liga return

Barcelona have received a fresh injury boost ahead of their La Liga trip to Sevilla with Gavi passed fit to travel.

Hansi Flick will assess his squad options in the coming hours ahead of facing the Andalucians after a tricky few days for La Blaugrana.

Following their superb 5-0 Copa del Rey quarter final win at Valencia, the entire travelling party were forced to travel back north to Catalonia by bus, due to hazardous weather.

Fog in the Valencia area prevented their flight from taking off in Castellon and they arrived back in Barcelona in the early hours of Friday morning.

That was far from ideal and disrupted Flick’s training and recovery plan ahead of the Sevilla game.

Flick is looking to close the La Liga title gap on Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid this weekend and Gavi’s return to action is a key positive for him.

The Spain international was forced off in the 1-0 home over Alaves last weekend after sustaining a nasty head injury and a concussion.

That required him to mis out away at Valencia, but following extensive tests, Gavi has passed all of the necessary concussion protocols and he can now return to the squad, as per reports from Diario Sport.

He took a full part in Barcelona’s final training session ahead of the game and could come straight back into the starting XI at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

Flick made four starting changes in between the Alaves and Valencia wins, but he is expected to recall Ronald Araujo, Marc Casado and Robert Lewandowski, with Gavi tipped to start over Fermin Lopez.

With no midweek UEFA Champions League game on the agenda, Flick will utilise the gap to give his players some down time, ahead of hosting in-form Rayo Vallecano next weekend, and the return of European action in March.