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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Ben Hayward

Barcelona announce training return on Friday after coronavirus testing

Barcelona will return to training on Friday, the Catalan club have announced.

First-team players were back at the club's Sant Joan Despi base for coronavirus testing on Wednesday, following a 53-day absence due to Covid-19, and training will now resume after none of the squad returned positive results.

"The first team will return to training this Friday individually following the protocols laid down by LaLiga," Barca said on their website on Thursday.

"The preparatory session is to take place at 9.30am CEST at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper where the Tito Vilanova training pitch, pitch 2 and pitch 3 will be used to divide up the players so that they have sufficient space to carry out the session and maintain the distance between each other stipulated by the health authorities.

"The players will arrive at the Club facilities already in their training kit in order to make their way directly to the corresponding training pitch and once the session is over they will return straight home without visiting the changing rooms."

Last week, the Spanish government unveiled a four-phase de-escalation plan for a return to a "new normality" and part of that allowed for professional sports sides to resume individual training this week.

From next week, players will be allowed to train in small groups, with a restart scheduled in LaLiga for early June.

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