Barcelona are nearing full health after a month of injuries, but one of their important players appears to be out for several weeks.
Pedri has recovered from his hamstring injury, although a month later than anticipated, and Xavi Hernandez has announced that he will be in the squad to face Real Sociedad on Saturday evening. He joins Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski, and Jules Kounde on the bench for El Clasico.
However, Frenkie de Jong will not be present. The Dutchman passed a fitness test on Friday, but he still felt leg pain from his muscle injury, ruling him out of the Real Sociedad match. According to reports, he is unlikely to return to action before the end of November.
With Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday, and Alaves at home the following weekend, the Catalan daily say that they do not want to take risks with de Jong, and thus he is likely to sit out both of those matches. The next game he would be available for is a trip to Vallecas to face Rayo Vallecano on the 25th of November.
The fact that Barcelona will probably see Shakhtar and Alaves as winnable matches without de Jong probably plays a part in that thinking. It is not yet clear whether de Jong will be fit to go on international duty to with the Netherlands, which explains the break between the Alaves and the Rayo tie. With the Dutch in desperate need of results to qualify for the Euros, they are more likely to risk de Jong, and thus Barcelona may be leaning towards resting him more too.