Barcelona defender misses training before Supercopa final
By Tom Gott
Barcelona centre-back Ronald Araujo was not present during a team training session in the build-up to Sunday's Supercopa de Espana final against Real Madrid.
The 23-year-old is among his side's most important players and Xavi has even publicly discussed the idea of using Araujo on the right side of his defence in an attempt to try and deal with Real's Vinicius Junior.
However, whether he will be fit enough to feature is up in the air as Marca state that Araujo missed at least half of the last training session before Sunday's game.
Araujo worked alone on the sidelines while the rest of the team trained in front of the media, and it is unknown whether he returned to the group once the cameras were turned off.
Barcelona have confirmed that Araujo will be part of the matchday squad for the Clasico final, but just how healthy he actually is remains to be seen.
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Also making the squad are both Frenkie de Jong and Ousmane Dembele, who had been considered doubtful through injury after picking up knocks in the semi-final victory over Real Betis earlier in the week.
24 players have travelled but only 22 can feature in the final matchday squad. Against Betis, it was Pablo Torre and Hector Bellerin who didn't make the cut.
Sunday's game will be Xavi's first final since taking over at Camp Nou and he will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the semi-final from last year's tournament, in which Barcelona ended up falling to a 3-2 defeat.
The Blaugrana did beat Real 4-0 in the sides' next meeting but Carlo Ancelotti got some revenge last time out with a 3-1 victory in October.