Barcelona boost as Andres Iniesta returns to training

Iniesta picked up a hamstring injury at the end of September in the 2-1 win against Bayer Leverkusen.

The news of Iniesta’s impending return is welcome news after Luis Enrique confirmed on Wednesday that Sergi Roberto will be out of action for 10 days.

Roberto joins longer term absentees Rafinha and Lionel Messi on the sidelines.

Barcelona’s transfer business last summer left a fair bit to be desired. They could not register any players until January but allowed Pedro, Adama Traore, Gerard Deulofeu, Denis Suarez, Ibrahim Afellay, and Alen Halilovic to leave the club.

How they could do with those players now: La Liga is so tight that Barcelona could feasibly be playing catch-up by the time they can register Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal.

Barcelona have been unlucky with injuries but their transfer strategy has been slipshod in the extreme.