• Xavi Hernandez will need to employ his imagination to conduct practise sessions
• Xavi will have to work with backup goalkeeper Inaki Pena
• Xavi will have to use some B-team players to make up the numbers

For the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, FC Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez will need to employ his imagination to conduct practise sessions.

16 Barcelona players, a club record, have received World Cup calls from their respective nations, three more than the 13 who travelled to Russia in 2018.

Given that Gerard Pique has already declared his retirement from the sport, that only leaves Xavi with seven first-team regulars in Barcelona.

In theory, Xavi will have to work with backup goalkeeper Inaki Pena, defenders Hector Bellerin, Marcos Alonso, and Alejandro Balde, while youngster Pablo Torre competes for Barca’s B-team because two of those players—Sergio Roberto and Franck Kessie—are injured. These players have been granted vacation time until December 5, but two of them—Sergio Roberto and Franck Kessie—are on injured reserve.

That isn’t even enough to organise a three-a-side match, so according to Xinhua, Xavi will have to use some B-team players to make up the numbers.

Barca’s first match after the World Cup is a La Liga trip to local rivals Espanyol on December 31, but because players are permitted 10 days of vacation after finishing a major tournament, Xavi might be secretly hoping that the World Cup experience doesn’t last too long for at least some of his team.

Although Toni Kroos, David Alaba, Ferland Mendy, Nacho Fernandez, Lucas Vazquez, Dani Ceballos, and Alvaro Odriozola are all absent from Real Madrid’s World Cup roster, coach Carlo Ancelotti still has the foundation of a respectable five-a-side outfit.

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