Barca lose Puyol

Barcelona will be without captain Carles Puyol for up to 10 days after he suffered a groin injury while playing for Catalonia.

The injury flared during the regional side’s friendly match against Honduras on Tuesday and will keep him on the sidelines ‘for the next seven to 10 days’, according to the Barcelona website.

Returning to training for the first time since the Christmas break, Puyol was noticeably absent with what the club describes as ‘a strain that will see him sidelined for over a week’, which would see him miss La Liga games against Levante and Deportivo La Coruna and the Copa del Rey clash against Athletic Bilbao.

In better news, new signing Ibrahim Afellay trained for the first time with his new team-mates following his move from PSV Eindhoven.