FC Barcelona Team News: Neymar Returns To Full Fitness Ahead Of Real Betis Clash

Brazilian superstar Neymar Jr. has returned to full fitness ahead of FC Barcelona’s final match of the calendar year against Real Betis at the Camp Nou on Wednesday.

Neymar had injured his groin in training ahead of FC Barcelona’s final group match of the UEFA Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen. As a result of his injury, Neymar missed the semi final of the FIFA Club World Cup against Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande held in Japan.

Though not fully fit, Neymar returned to the Blaugrana first team for the final of the tournament against River Plate a week later. However, the former Santos man has returned to full fitness and will start the final match of FC Barcelona’s memorable year.

Enrique: Turan and Vidal will boost Barcelona squad

“That is the fear you always have when you come back from a few days off,” said FC Barcelona manager Luis Enrique (via espnfc) when asked if the members of his squad are fully match fit. “But they have all arrived very fresh, motivated and ambitious. That makes me very optimistic.”

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This is the last match which Barcelona’s summer recruits Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan are not eligible to play in. They will give Luis Enrique’s squad a big boost ahead of a busy January schedule for the Catalans.

“To help with that [fixture congestion in January], wea ve got two new players [Turan and Vidal] coming ina said Enrique (as quoted by the club’s official website). “But wea ll need to bring them in gradually so that they can get back into the right rhythm.

“Theya re dying to get out there and start helping the team on the pitch, and not just from the side-lines. Theya ve settled in very nicely and now all that remains is for them to start enjoying their football for real.”

Brazilian forward Rafinha remains FC Barcelona’s only long term absentee on account of an ACL injury suffered at the start of the season.