Samu steps up recovery, trains on a restricted basis at Olival | OneFootball

Spanish forward Samu already took part in the first drills with the FC Porto squad at Monday morning’s training session. The session took place on the eve of the first matchday of the Champions League league phase, against Manchester City, scheduled for Tuesday at 8pm.

During the first 15 minutes open to journalists at Olival, Samu was seen working with and without the ball under the guidance of coach Francesco Farioli. The player moved from modified training to partial integration with the rest of the group.

Victor Froholdt, Zaidu, Oskar Pietuszewski, André Miranda and Vasco Sousa, meanwhile, remain unavailable and continue to be absentees for the Porto coach.

Froholdt, who has since been discharged from hospital, is following the recovery protocol after the concussion he suffered in Friday’s match against Moreirense. The midfielder watched training, but did not do exercises with his teammates or individual work.

Zaidu and Oskar Pietuszewski, both registered on the Champions League List A and included in the medical report, are continuing their recovery through treatment and modified training. The same applies to André Miranda, who is registered on UEFA’s List B. Vasco Sousa, for his part, was not registered for European competitions for this league phase.

In addition to these four absences, plus Froholdt and Samu, FC Porto will also be without Polish centre-back Jan Bednarek against Enzo Maresca’s side. Although he trained, the defender is serving the first of a two-match suspension following his red card in the second leg of the 2025/26 Europa League quarter-finals against Nottingham Forest. Bednarek will also miss the trip to Betis on 14 October, only becoming available again in the Champions League for the third matchday, at home to PSV Eindhoven on 20 October. In total, there are seven absentees, also counting Vasco Sousa.

The session had been scheduled for 10:30am, but started approximately 30 minutes later. Luís Gomes and João Teixeira, centre-back and midfielder for the B team respectively, were called up to training because of the absences of Bednarek and Froholdt for the match.

At 12:45pm, Francesco Farioli and goalkeeper Diogo Costa will preview the clash with the English side at a press conference at the Jorge Costa Training and Sports Development Centre in Olival.

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