São Paulo team news: Pablo Maia nears return, trains without mask | OneFootball

With the match against Botafogo coming up in the Brazilian Championship — scheduled for next Saturday (23) at 5 p.m. (Brasília time) at Morumbi — São Paulo’s squad trained this Thursday (21) at the Barra Funda training center.

The morning of preparations began with a video shown to the players by the coaching staff. Afterwards, the players went out onto the pitch and started the session with a warm-up featuring mobility and coordination exercises.

Next, Dorival Júnior and his coaching staff led a ten-versus-ten training session in a reduced space.

There was also additional attacking technical work, focused on long balls, crosses, and finishing.

In the images released by the club from the training session, there was one piece of news: Pablo Maia appeared without the protective mask following surgery to correct fractures to his nose and face. The midfielder is working on regaining his fitness, and the expectation is that he will be included in the squad for the match.

There is also still expectation surrounding Marcos Antônio. In the recovery phase after an injury to his right rectus femoris, the midfielder is awaiting clearance from the medical department and fitness coaches.

On the morning of this Friday (22), Tricolor will wrap up preparations for next weekend’s match, which will be valid for the 17th round of the national competition.

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