Injury Status: Bellerin, Christensen, Araujo and Memphis

Injuries have been cruel with Barça since the international break, coinciding with a key moment of the season.

These injuries hit particularly hard in defence. Therefore, at one stage Barça were without Ronald Araujo, Jules Kounde, Hector Bellerin and Andreas Christensen. All four missed the 3-3 draw with Inter.

Frenkie de Jong, Memphis Depay and Franck Kessie have also all been injured at various stages during October.

Kounde, De Jong and Kessie are now available again for Xavi Hernandez. Here is how the rest of the players progressing and when they could be back:

Bellerín:

The right-back is in the final stage of his recovery. He has been training with the team and he moght return against Villarreal on Thursday. However he’s likely to wait until Sunday against Athletic Club at Camp Nou. When he’s back, Xavi will have more options at right-back, where Sergi Roberto played recently.

Memphis:

Another player close to a comeback. Muscle problems have left Xavi without the Dutch forward, but he should be back for Athletic on Sunday or, if not, against Bayern next Wednesday.

Christensen:

The Dane was another big loss in recent games after spraining his ankle against Inter in Milan. He was ruled out for around three weeks. Bayern Munich on Oct. 26 is the game pencilled in for this return at the moment.

Araujo:

Araujo’s injury was the most serious and needed surgery. Three months was speculated for his time out of action. He is working hard to return for Uruguay in the World CUp in November, but won’t feature for Barça again until after the tournament in Qatar.