Barcelona reserve team captain trains with senior squad ahead of Sevilla clash

As Barcelona continue their preparations for Sunday’s La Liga clash against Sevilla at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, they have been greeted with positive news on the fitness front.

Dani Olmo, Fermin Lopez, and Gavi are all training normally and will receive their medical all-clear in time for Sunday’s league encounter.

Meanwhile, both Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal trained normally after returning from their international assignments with minor fitness problems.

Apart from these positives from today’s training session, there was also an unexpected appearance.

Unai Hernandez trains with the senior team

Indeed, as reported by SPORT, Barcelona youngster and reserve team captain Unai Hernandez trained with the senior squad under the management of Hansi Flick today.

The 19-year-old has been in and around the first-team setup since last season when Xavi Hernandez called him up to training and named him in a few matchday squads as well, without handing him a debut.

The trend has continued under Hansi Flick, with Unai travelling to the USA for the pre-season tour and then featuring in first-team training a fair bit.

At the same, the versatile attacking midfielder has been excelling with Barça Atletic, where he is now one of the captains.

The 19-year-old has featured in all seven matches this season for Albert Sanchez’s side, even scoring three goals.

Given that Barcelona have recovered almost all of their injured midfielders, Unai’s presence in training today was unexpected but certainly a positive as it shows Flick’s faith in La Masia and highlights his openness to give chances to young talent.

Barça Atletic will play Ponferradina on Saturday where Unai will be involved. With the first-team match on Sunday, it will be interesting to see if Flick opts to call him up against Sevilla.