Barcelona change return plans for their 10 remaining World Cup players | OneFootball

With the FIFA World Cup drawing to a close, FC Barcelona have already mapped out the return of the ten first-team players still competing in the tournament, aiming to have them back sooner than originally planned, reports SPORT.

The Blaugrana remain the club with the highest number of players still involved in the World Cup, with 10 representatives set to feature in the tournament’s final weekend.

The competition concludes with the third-place playoff between France and England tonight before the showpiece event, the finale between Spain and Argentina on Sunday.

Barcelona initially had 15 players participating in the tournament. Since then, Hamza Abdelkarim, Frenkie de Jong, Ronald Araujo, Joao Cancelo and Raphinha have all exited the competition.

Two weeks break instead of three

As per the report, Barcelona’s remaining World Cup players are currently expected to receive two weeks of rest, rather than the three weeks normally provided under Spain’s collective agreement.

Anthony Gordon will join his first Barcelona training session in early August. (Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

As such, the club intends for the group to return during the week beginning August 3.

The players will not lose their entitled holiday. Instead, Barça plan to compensate them by granting additional time off during the extended international break scheduled for September, when the September and October FIFA windows have been combined.

The reasoning is largely practical.

If the players were to take the full three-week break immediately after the World Cup, they would not return until around August 10, leaving them with barely ten days of pre-season before La Liga begins.

By shortening the initial vacation and postponing the remaining rest days, Barcelona hope to ensure their World Cup stars are adequately prepared for the start of the new season while still receiving the full amount of leave to which they are entitled.

Early returns already underway

Hamza Abdelkarim is already training under Flick. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, some players who were eliminated early, have already reported back to the club. Hamza Abdelkarim declined a post-tournament holiday, returning directly to Barcelona after briefly visiting Egypt to receive a public tribute.

The young forward hopes to impress Hansi Flick during pre-season, although the club already expects him to feature regularly with the first team.

De Jong also returned early after suffering a significant knee injury during the World Cup, which will rule him out for four monhs.

Araujo underwent medical examinations at Barcelona earlier this week following the injury he sustained with Uruguay and is expected to resume full training on Monday.

Raphinha has been granted a slightly longer break but is still expected to join Barcelona during the pre-season training camp in England.