Barcelona dealt blow as Xavi confirms superstar will miss La Liga fixture against Rayo Vallecano
Xavi Hernandez has confirmed that Marc-Andre ter Stegen will not play for Barcelona when they take on Rayo Vallecano this weekend.
Ter Stegen was forced to return from international duty with Germany due to a back problem. It seems that the Spanish tactician isn't interested in risking his star goalkeeper when his team travel to the Estadio de Vallecas on Saturday (25 November).
Barca haven't beaten Rayo in their last four games across competitions, with Los Franjirrojos winning thrice. Xavi will have to make do with a handful of first-team stars in their upcoming encounter, and Ter Stegen is one of them.
Speaking at his pre-match presser, the Spanish manager said, via SportsMole:
"Tomorrow Marc [Andre ter Stegen] will not be able to be there and all the confidence in Inaki Pena, who is 100% prepared."
Inaki Pena (24) is in line to get a rare start between the sticks. He has yet to play a single minute of football this season and has made just five senior appearances for the Blaugranas in over 11 years at the club.
The Catalan giants are placed third in the table with 30 points from 13 matches and have the fourth-best defense in terms of goals conceded (13).
Xavi unsure about Barcelona duo's involvement against Rayo Vallecano due to international fixtures
Xavi Hernandez has implied that Ronald Araujo and Raphinha may not start in the game against Rayo Vallecano given their hectic international schedule this month.
Araujo played every single minute of Uruguay's two 2026 FIFA World Cup CONMEBOL qualifiers, the latest of which ended in a 3-0 win against Bolivia on 22 November. Raphinha also started both games for his country and played 72 minutes in Brazil's loss to Argentina on the same day.
Speaking ahead of the game about the Barcelona duo's availability, Xavi said, via the aforementioned source:
"We are conditioned by the minutes. For example, Araujo and Raphinha have hardly trained, they have had to rest. We are worried about fatigue and the minutes.
"We do tests and injury prevention. We do tests to see how they are and thus decide the alignment... more than a small solution, which I think FIFA is considering, to spend eight or nine months at the club, and then the players go to the national team."
Meanwhile, Gavi was a major loss for Barcelona during the recent international break. The 19-year-old midfielder is ruled out for the season after suffering a serious ACL injury while playing for Spain.