Barcelona defender not in training today, set to miss El Clasico vs Real Madrid

Barcelona will embark on a trip to the Spanish capital this weekend as they take on reigning La Liga champions Real Madrid tomorrow night at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The Blaugrana are the current league leaders and the most in-form team in Europe and go into the encounter as favourites against Carlo Ancelotti’s men, more so now that they have recovered a host of their injured players.

No Eric Garcia though

However, it appears that versatile defender Eric Garcia will miss tomorrow’s El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Indeed, according to Mundo Deportivo, the former La Masia trainee has not participated in the training session with the rest of the group today, which all but confirms his absence for tomorrow’s heavyweight clash.

Garcia set to miss El Clasico. (Photo by Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images)

Garcia picked up an adductor injury right before kickoff against Sevilla last week and went onto miss the subsequent UEFA Champions League clash against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

There had been some expectations that Garcia would recover in time for the Clasico, but doubts about his availability emerged again after he did not participate in yesterday’s training session.

Garcia’s absence in today’s sessions as well all but confirms his unavailability for the trip to Madrid.

Along with him, Barcelona will also be without the services of Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Ferran Torres, and Marc Bernal for the Clasico.

Real Madrid themselves are without a number of key players including Thibaut Courtois, Dani Carvajal and David Alaba.