Cotia youngsters return as Artur progresses, São Paulo train for Coritiba | OneFootball

After returning from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, late on Wednesday afternoon (12), the day after the 1-1 draw with Bolívar in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana round of 16, São Paulo’s squad resumed activities on Thursday morning (13) at the Barra Funda training center.

The Tricolor side is now turning its attention to the clash against Coritiba in the 23rd round of the Brazilian Championship, which will be played at Morumbi starting at 9 p.m. (Brasília time) on Saturday (15).

Expectation over Artur

The first activities of the day brought the whole group together, including forward Artur, who is still recovering from pain in his left adductor. The fitness coaches led mobility drills and technical warm-up exercises, and then the coaching staff proposed a possession drill with a touch limit.

After that, Artur joined center-back Rafael Toloi, who is recovering from an injury to the back of his right thigh, for specific fitness work. Meanwhile, the players who spent more time on the field in Bolivia ran around the pitch and then went indoors at the training center, where they completed their recovery schedule.

For the players who remained on the field, Dorival Júnior and his assistants proposed two-on-one and three-on-two drills, followed by a small-sided game.

Youngsters return

Kept out of training in recent days after being involved in a fatal car accident, left-back Nicolas returned to training with the group, taking part in every stage of São Paulo’s session.

Defensive midfielder Djhordney and attacking midfielder Pedro Ferreira returned after representing the Brazil under-20 national team in two friendlies against Bolivia at Granja Comary. Both started both matches, which ended with the same score: a 2-0 win for Brazil.

Tricolor will wrap up its preparation for the clash against the Paraná side with another training session at Barra Funda on Friday morning (14), when Dorival Jr. will decide the team’s lineup for the match.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.