Barcelona manager in trouble as more players become unavailable

Xavi Hernandez has found himself facing a selection crisis as he welcomes the New Year. FC Barcelona has been hit with another wave of positive Covid-19 results, which further depletes his roster of players that are available for selection when they face Real Mallorca on Sunday.

On top of the Covid-19 cases, Sergio Busquets is suspended for the match. Meanwhile, injuries are also keeping players like Ansu Fati, Memphis Depay and Pedri absent for extended periods.

As of the latest update on Wednesday, seven members of Barcelona's first-team squad have tested positive. Earlier in the week, Dani Alves, Samuel Umtiti, Clement Lenglet and Jordi Alba were ruled out for the trip to San Moix. Shortly after, Alejandro Balde, Gavi and Dembélé also returned positive Covid-19 test results.

It's a complete disaster for Xavi, who was already struggling with the number of absences even without the novel coronavirus outbreak. He also lost Sergio Aguero, who has been forced to retire from professional football altogether due to a heart condition. Even his new signing, Ferran Torres, is still unfit to play due to a foot fracture.

Xavi still has enough first-team players available to him when he forms a team to face Mallorca., but of course, more positive cases might still turn up in the coming days. La Liga Santander has now only required a club to produce at least five first-team players to go ahead with a match, with the rest coming from the reserves and youth squad.

A minimum of 13 players need to be available, and Xavi will likely include the likes of Nico, Jutglà and Abde, who are currently part of the reserve team. At the moment, Marc Andre Ter Stegen, Ronald Araujo, Gerard Piqué, Eric Garcia, Oscar Mingueza, Frenkie de Jong, Riqui Puig, Sergino Dest, Neto, Luuk de Jong and Philippe Coutinho are some of the healthy players that will likely be making the trip to Mallorca.