Barcelona completed their penultimate training session at St George’s Park on Sunday as preparations for the new season continued in England, with the squad set to return home earlier than planned after their friendly against Preston North End was cancelled.
The Catalan club held two sessions on the Sir Bobby Charlton pitch at the Football Association’s national football centre. Their final workout at St George’s Park is scheduled to take place on Monday, according to Mundo Deportivo, before the team leaves England and heads back to Barcelona.
The altered schedule means Barcelona’s stay at the training base will end sooner than originally expected. The cancellation of the planned match with Preston North End has removed the final fixture from the club’s England programme, leaving training as the remaining focus before the squad returns home.
Manager Hansi Flick involved all available first-team players across the two sessions on Sunday. The German coach continued preparations with the senior squad while also overseeing the gradual integration of new signing Jesse Bisiwu.
Bisiwu trained alongside his new team-mates for the first time on Saturday and continued his adaptation to the group during Sunday’s work. He completed the opening part of the afternoon session with the squad.
Alejandro Balde also took part in that first section of the evening training session. The Spain international joined the group before the players continued with the rest of their planned work.
As has been the case throughout Barcelona’s stay in England, the sessions included players from both the first team and the reserve group who travelled to St George’s Park. The travelling group consisted of Armon Yaakobishvili, Iker Rodriguez, Hamza Abdelkarim, Ibrahima Tonkara, Alvaro Cortes, Alex Gonzalez, Jordi Pesquer, Brian Farinas, Jofre Torrents, Xavi Espart, Ibrahim Diarra, Toni Fernandez, Shane Kluivert, Oscar Gistau, Oriol Guren and Gil Fernandez.
Tommy Marques trained during the morning session despite feeling slight discomfort. He was then rested for the afternoon workout as a precaution.
Frenkie de Jong did not take part in the group’s work and is continuing his treatment for a serious knee injury. His recovery remains separate from the team’s preparations at St George’s Park.
Sunday’s programme therefore represented Barcelona’s second-last day of training at the English facility. The squad will complete one final session on Monday before returning to Spain, with the early departure linked directly to the cancellation of the Preston North End friendly.
