Barcelona Faces Tough Week Ahead with Fitness Doubts

The next seven days are going to be one of the most important of the season for FC Barcelona; on Tuesday night they play Inter Milan in the Champions League, needing a win and a draw out of the next two games to ensure a place in the next round.

And on Sunday they play in the most passionately fought battle of the Spanish league when centralist Spain squares up to Catalan pride as Real Madrid visits the Nou Camp.

This year sees Madrid leading the table with 28 points; after last night's matches they are one point ahead of Barça after adding another three points to their tally compared with just a single point for Barcelona.

Apart from the sense of pride engendered by topping the league table the single point between them would hardly matter. When asked about this, Barça coach Pep Guardiola said "I do not give any importance to us going into the match as leaders. It would be good because it would mean that we have won in Bilbao, but the league will not be decided until nearer the end of the season."

However Guardiola must really be cursing luck his weekend with the knowledge that three of his players have been diagnosed with swine flu.

On Friday it was confirmed that Eric Abidal and Toure Yaya had been struck down with the H1N1 virus, although Abidal was out of action anyway, having been injured during France's infamous defeat of Ireland last weekend; however a day later Rafael Marques also went down with the illness.

According to Barça's website the club’s medical team are working to avoid the further spread of the virus throughout the squad. To demonstrate the possible magnitude of the problem, just three weeks ago second division Betis had to cancel a match when half its players became infected.

Another player whose fitness is in doubt is the big signing of the summer. Zlatan Ibrahimovic missed last night's match against Athletic Bilbao with a thigh strain; two weeks ago he damaged his left thigh against Mallorca, but tests have revealed a new injury to the same area.

Meanwhile, Leo Messi's fitness for Tuesday is also in doubt after he was substituted on Saturday with a groin strain.

With some key players potentially out of action ahead of one of the biggest weeks of the year for Barça all we can do is hope for them to play the best they can; even an under-strength Barça possesses the kind of firepower smaller teams can only dream of.

Through good play and a little luck we'll get to the end of next weekend without feeling pig sick at the results.

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