No, you can’t replace injured Brazilian Rafinha, Federation Internationale de Football Association tells Barca

But they still opted to sign Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal in the summer transfer window with a view to bringing them into the squad in the New Year.

“It doesn’t matter what I think”.

“I am expecting a Levante with the same attitude that I have seen them with in the first few games of the season“.

Adriano is back in training and his return should ease the defensive crisis to an extent at Barca with injuries to Dani Alves and Douglas prompting Enrique to put Sergi Roberto in a makeshift right-back position.

The La Masia graduate underwent a series of tests on Thursday morning to determine the extent of the injury, which confirmed Barcelona’s worst possible fears: an anterior cruciate ligament tear.

It has been rumoured that Barca would ask Federation Internationale de Football Association to relax the ban, but speaking to the press ahead of his side’s home game against Levante on Sunday, Luis Enrique ruled that option out.

“The news is extremely sad for the player and we will have to cover for his absence with players from the youth team“.

The law states that it is permissible that a player can be registered in place of another when such an injury is the issue, and Freixa argues that Barcelona’s ban from transfers is now officially over. We’re confident we’ll arrive well at the final part of the season’. If he wasn’t, we’d have only 17 players in our squad.

Claudio Bravo is still out and Marc Andre Ter-Stagen is expected to play in the goal, once again.

“[Despite our muscle injuries], we remain on the same line physically, trying to protect players and avoiding injuries”. [Injuries] won’t change our approach nor what we want to do during the season.

“We’ve had a much more demanding start to the season than the last”.