United States Pre-Season Tour 'Complicated' for Barcelona, Says Ernesto Valverde

Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde has said that the club's pre-season tour of the United States is "complicated" for his team.

The Blaugrana kick off their La Liga title defence with a trip to Athletic Bilbao on Aug. 17.

But in the interim they play two friendlies against Napoli: at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Aug. 7 and at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Aug. 10.

They only recently completed a tour of Japan before beating Arsenal 2-1 in the Joan Gamper Trophy on Sunday.

Valverde said Barca's final pre-season tour poses challenges for his side, per AS (h/t MailOnline's Alec Fenn): "The tour is important for the club, economically and socially. But for the team it is complicated. … We must travel many kilometres and with players who have not trained. We will see how we can solve it."

Lionel Messi will be absent for the tour of the U.S. after he picked up a calf injury during his first training session back with the group, per Sport.

The Argentinian may also be unavailable for the visit to the San Mames Stadium:

As a result, the onus will be on Barca's other attacking stars to ensure they make a winning start to the new season.

That will include Antoine Griezmann, who moved to the Camp Nou last month from Atletico Madrid for €120 million (£107 million):

The Frenchman has been a consistent goalscorer at Atleti in La Liga over the last five seasons, and he will be eager to hit the ground running in his first competitive action with Barca.