Raphinha Returns to Barcelona Training After Two Games

Eight La Liga matches, eight Barcelona wins, and the eighth came without Raphinha. The captain returned to full team training on Thursday, October 15, after missing the 3 to 0 win over Getafe and the Champions League trip to Galatasaray with a leg injury picked up on Brazil duty. Whether he plays Saturday against Real Betis, waits for PSG on October 20 or saves himself for El Clásico on October 25 is now Hansi Flick's call.

Thursday: Full Training After Two Missed Games

Raphinha trained with the group for the first time since the injury, Barcelona's official site reported, and some outlets said he resumed full team training and is available for Betis. He was hurt in Brazil's friendly against Australia on September 30, with some reports giving September 29, during an international break in which six other Barcelona players featured for Spain. Accounts of the injury differ, a knock to the right thigh in one and a hamstring issue in others, and nobody has published a diagnosis stronger than Flick's own description.

The absence cost him two matches. He missed the Getafe game on October 10, which Barcelona won 3 to 0 to reach 24 points, 34 goals scored and seven conceded, and he was left out of the squad for the October 13 trip to Galatasaray's RAMS Park.

Flick Counts Three Injuries From Last Season

Flick called the injury "not a big injury" before the Getafe game, and said the club was being careful because Raphinha had three injuries in that area last season. That is the reason Thursday's session did not settle anything. Reports differ on whether he will be in the squad for Betis. Tribuna lists Frenkie de Jong and Raphinha as both in contention to return, and one report says Flick could prefer to recover Raphinha completely for PSG rather than rush him. AllFootballApp noted that Andreas Christensen and Alejandro Balde were absent from the same session, so the squad list is still taking shape.

BeIN Sports reported on October 15 that Raphinha is stepping up his recovery and is set to be 100 percent for El Clásico. Barcelona face PSG on Tuesday, October 20, at the Parc des Princes, and then Real Madrid on October 25. Betis, PSG and Madrid in nine days is a schedule that makes caution a competitive decision.

15 Goal Involvements in Seven Matches

The reason the injury drew this much attention is how Raphinha started the season. He scored two hat tricks in four days, beating Racing Santander 7 to 2 on September 16 and Sevilla 3 to 1 on September 19, and reached 15 goal involvements through Barcelona's first seven league matches, a 21st century club record. Sporting director Deco confirmed a new contract through 2030 days later.

The numbers had been building from August. He won the EA Sports LaLiga Player of the Month award after 5 goals and 1 assist in Barcelona's first three league matches, beating Jude Bellingham, Alex Baena, Aubameyang and Nahuel Tenaglia, and he now holds the award twice. LaLiga then named him its best player of September. In the opening three matches he scored in every one, five goals in total, one more than Kylian Mbappe.

Barcelona Won Eight of Eight Anyway

Barcelona kept winning without him. The Getafe result made it eight La Liga wins from eight, with 34 goals for and seven against, and Lamine Yamal had a hand in four of five goals in the Champions League opener against Feyenoord, a 5 to 1 win in which Raphinha scored twice. Thirty four goals in eight matches is 4.25 a game, and seven conceded is under one a game, numbers a team does not produce by leaning on one forward. What it has not shown yet is what that team looks like in a Clásico without him, and Flick would rather not find out.

The Clásico on October 25 is the match Golf Wang and Barcelona built a collection around, a match shirt that replaces the Spotify logo with the GOLF wordmark in an edition of 1,899. Betis on Saturday, PSG on Tuesday, Real Madrid the Sunday after: three matches in nine days, and the captain has one full session behind him. Barcelona have not dropped a point in the league this season, so the one variable Flick is managing in public is whether his top scorer is available for all three.