Valverde includes injured player in his 23-man squad as Messi and Barcelona stars trained ahead of Liverpool game (Photos)

6 months ago Raphael Sport News

Barcelona will take on Liverpool at Anfield on Tuesday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final and Ernesto Valverde has decided to include injured Rafinha in his squad. The midfielder has been out for most of the season with a knee injury and is still unavailable, but the coach wants him to form part of the group.

Ousmane Dembele and Jean-Clair Todibo, however, finished Saturday's Celta Vigo match with injuries and they will not be on the plane to England on Monday morning. Tests on Sunday have confirmed that Barcelona will be without the World cup winner for their Champions League semi-final second-leg clash against Liverpool on Tuesday night.

Ousmane Dembélé comes off at Balaídos

The French winger sustained an injury to the biceps femoris in his right leg and while Barcelona did not explicitly state how long he will be out for, Dembele will certainly miss the match at Anfield. Dembele picked up the injury in the first minute of Barcelona's 2-0 defeat at Celta Vigo on Saturday night and was replaced by La Masia product Alex Collado.

This is the 21-year-old's third injury of the season, with the two previous knocks also coming in the biceps femoris but on the other leg. Initially he felt discomfort against Rayo Vallecano before suffering a relapse against Lyon. As a result of Dembele's absence, Philippe Coutinho will almost certainly start alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in attack at Liverpool. There was a second injury for Barcelona at Balaidos as Jean-Clair Todibo finished the match against Celta with some annoyances.

There was no rest for Lionel Messi and his teammates as they took to the training pitch in the early hours on Sunday morning to prepare ahead of their Champions League second leg encounter against Liverpool.

The complete squad list for this match is as follows: Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Jasper Cillessen, Inaki Pena, Nelson Semedo, Gerard Pique, Ivan Rakitic, Sergio Busquets, Philippe Coutinho, Arthur, Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi, Rafinha, Malcom, Clement Lenglet, Jeison Murillo, Jordi Alba, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Sergi Roberto, Arturo Vidal, Samuel Umtiti, Thomas Vermaelen, Carles Alena and Moussa Wague.