A pair of surprise names have been included in the travelling squad called upon by Barcelona head coach for the club’s upcoming pre-season training camp in England.
Barca’s first-team stars departed Catalunya’s capital on Monday morning, making their way to Staffordshire to ramp up the club’s preparations for the new campaign.
A whole host of high-profile absentees were noted from the party, with the likes of Raphinha, Lamine Yamal, Pedri and Ferran Torres still enjoying their respective post-World Cup vacations.
As alluded to above, though, there were also a couple of head-turning inclusions in Hansi Flick’s setup for the week ahead.
Despite having just last week been condemned to a long-term spell on the sidelines through injury, Frenkie de Jong joined his Blaugrana teammates in making the trip to the UK.
And so too did Marc-André ter Stegen, expected to complete a loan move to the Eredivisie with Ajax at any moment.
Conor Laird – GSFN
