Barcelona's International Break: Flick Faces Training Challenges

Barcelona head into this strange, stretched international break with a spring in their step and a problem on the training pitch.

Fresh from a sharp 3-1 win over Sevilla at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan, Hansi Flick’s team have closed this phase of the season on a high. The performance, the result, the mood – all lined up. Then the calendar intervened.

Flick’s empty training ground

One of the big unknowns was how Flick would navigate an international window that drags on longer than usual. The answer: with barely a team to work with.

According to SPORT, only six first-team players will remain at his disposal in Barcelona over the coming days: Gavi, Gerard Martin, Alejandro Balde, Gabriel Jesus, Brian Farinas and Wojciech Szczesny.

That list does not include the walking wounded. Joan Garcia, Andreas Christensen and Frenkie de Jong will also stay at the Ciutat Esportiva, but only to continue their individual recovery plans rather than take part in full sessions.

So Flick, a coach who thrives on structure and repetition, is left with a skeleton group.

The schedule is tight and simple. Barcelona will train from Tuesday through Friday, four sessions to keep the legs moving and ideas fresh. After that, the club will shut it down: the remaining players are off from 28 September until 4 October, with a return to collective work pencilled in for 5 October, just before the internationals filter back.

It gives Flick a brief, almost pre-season-style window with a tiny core of his squad, then silence, then the chaos of a full group returning at different physical and mental speeds.

Gavi refuses to rest

Monday was officially a rest day. No team training. Flick himself didn’t even set foot at the training ground.

Gavi did.

The midfielder turned up at the Ciutat Esportiva to train voluntarily, a snapshot of his relentless mentality. Joan Garcia and Christensen were also present, both continuing their rehabilitation programmes as they work to rejoin the group.

Fermin Lopez made a fleeting appearance too, stopping by the facilities only to pick up some belongings before heading back out. The real collective work starts again on Tuesday, when Flick finally has his six-man group together.

Raphinha’s break looks nothing like a break

While the handful of players left in Catalonia are about to enjoy an unusually long pause, Raphinha is staring at the opposite reality.

He heads into international duty with Brazil at the hottest point of his Barcelona career so far. His hat-trick against Sevilla did more than kill the game; it fired him to the top of the La Liga scoring charts and underlined his status as one of the form forwards in Europe right now.

Now comes the mileage. Raphinha will travel almost halfway around the world as Brazil play two matches in Australia, then fly on to India for another friendly. Three games, three countries, relentless time zones.

Only then will he return to Barcelona, fold back into Flick’s plans and try to maintain a season that has started at full throttle.

As the training pitches in Sant Joan Despí fall quiet and the dressing room empties, one question hangs in the air: when this group finally comes back together, can Barcelona pick up exactly where they left off?