25-year-old Barcelona star returns ahead of Athletic Club clash after first absence of the season | OneFootball

FC Barcelona saw their Copa del Rey campaign come to an end in their last outing, in the semi-final second leg against Atletico Madrid. However, they still have two big trophies to fight for, i.e., La Liga and the UEFA Champions League.

In fact, the Blaugranes would be returning to action in the former, as they take on a difficult Athletic Club side. The Catalans have already been training for this game.

As SPORT has noted, these training sessions ahead of the Athletic Club game saw the defender Eric Garcia return to availability, after he served his suspension for the Copa del Rey semi-final second leg. The Spaniard was shown a red card in the first leg.

This was the first time the 25-year-old Spanish defender had missed a game for Barcelona this season, and before that, he had played all 40 games for his team.

In fact, the last time he missed a game for the Blaugrana team was a year ago, on March 5th, in the first leg of the UCL tie against Benfica. Following that match, he played 59 consecutive games for the Catalan side.

Hansi Flick would definitely be happy to have one of his leaders and such an important player back, especially when Barcelona are reeling with some other notable absences in defense.