FC Barcelona star Pedri was shown training on Thursday, with a view to making the club’s Champions League quarterfinals clash with Paris Saint-Germain next month.
The midfielder has been out of action since the first half of a March 3 trip to Athletic Club, where both he and Frenkie de Jong pulled up with different knocks.
Pedri hobbled off the San Mames pitch in tears, and he was later confirmed as having suffered a reoccurrence of the right thigh knock that sidelined him in late August.
“It’s hard to stop and start again after all the effort and work behind it. Even so, do not doubt that yesterday’s tears of helplessness will return to those of happiness very soon,” Pedri tweeted on social media in the aftermath of his latest setback.
AS reported that Pedri could be out for five to six weeks, but his head coach Xavi Hernandez also put fans’ minds at rest by stating that the knock wasn’t as serious as originally suspected.
“It’s not as bad as we thought and I hope he can help us soon,” were his exact words, with the manager validating a Mundo Deportivo report on the subject.
Almost a full month since the incident in the Basque region, Pedri is now back with the rest of his teammates as confirmed by a social media post which showed him running on the grass of the Joan Gamper CT and smiling in full training gear.
SPORT explains that Pedri is “rushing to be available” for Barca’s first leg showdown with PSG in Paris on April 10, and though it will be “impossible” for him to be a starter there, it’s not difficult to imagine him at least making the plane to the Parc des Princes and forming part of the squad should he continue progressing.
The following Saturday sees Barca take on Cadiz away, and Pedri could pick up further minutes ahead of perhaps being given a run out from the get go when the Catalans host PSG at the Montjuic Stadium on April 16.
In the absence of Pedri and De Jong, Xavi is likely to go with a midfield three of Andreas Christensen, Ilkay Gundogan and Fermin Lopez which worked wonders when it came to eliminating Napoli from the last 16 on the continent.
