If we thought it was bad yesterday with the news of Zlatan Ibrahimovic's hamstring injury, today it is worse as news arrives of two cases of Swine Flu in Barça's first team squad. Eric Abidal is the first player to be confirmed as having the H1N1 viral strain of influenza A while Toure Yaya is suspected of having the virus but is waiting for conformation. We may feel relieved that Abidal has caught the bug while he is already out injured but Toure, who is thought to have picked it up while on international duty, trained with other players yesterday and may have passed on the illness. We will just have to wait and see if any of the other players get ill. Presumably if a lot of players get it then there may be a case for postponing matches but I don't suppose we'll get...

As we near the end of the year the personal awards keep coming in recognition of our excellent year. Leo Messi has been named the best player of 2009 by the French magazine Onze Mondial, and in a final list of 57 nominations Barça were the team with the most candidates, besides Messi there were nominations for Valdes, Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Xavi, Toure, Iniesta, Ibrahimovic and Henry making a total of ten players from Barça which beat Manchester United who had eight nominations.

There was also an award from the Observer Sports Monthly Magazine who named Pep Guardiola as the Best Coach of the Year. There is also an excellent article from John Carlin on Guardiola. Click...

Well it's not been the best of months by the high standards we have set this season, but we are still in the running for three competitions so we shouldn't really grumble too much. The player of the month for February is Andres Iniesta, who unfortunately has ended the month on the injury list but today he was training again with the rest of the team and will hopefully be back in the team next weekend. Iniesta was in good form before his injury and was our best player in the games against Mallorca, Sporting and Betis. It is a sign of Iniesta's importance that we have not won either of the two matches he has missed. This is the third time Iniesta has won the Fcbnews Player Of The Month award, only Leo...

Tests this morning have confirmed that Eric Abidal has a torn muscle in his right thigh. Abidal will miss an estimated eight weeks with the injury, including the Champions League games with Lyon and the quarter finals if we get through. He will also miss out on the Copa del Rey return with Mallorca and approximately eight league games. Abidal still has his critics after a disappointing first season at the club, but this season he has been a vital part of the team and we will miss him for what is a crucial part of the season.

In other news Pep Guardiola has named 19 players to make the...

Last week I wrote a piece in praise of Leo Messi, Samuel Eto'o and Thierry Henry. However, it could be argued that the form of Barça's defence is just as important if not more so to this season's success. Victor Valdés has only been beaten nine times in fifteen league games which makes Barça's the best defence in La Liga so far this season.

At the start of the season there were still a few problems at the back especially when it came to defending at set pieces.  The first clean sheet in the league wasn't achieved until the 0-1 win at Athletic Bilbao in the seventh jornada. Since then we have managed another six clean sheets in La Liga and have now only...

This was a difficult one this month. Having won six out of six in October there are many players in excellent form at the moment. The defence deserves credit for only conceding two goals, but at the other end we have scored twenty this month. In the end the October Player Of The Month goes to Leo Messi who saved us with two late goals against Shakhtar Donetsk and also scored against Atletico and Basle. Second place goes to September's winner Xavi Hernandez who continues to dazzle in midfield, while Samuel Eto'o is only third despite bagging six goals in four games; he would normally win hands down with such a record but it just goes to...

Tests this afternoon have revealed that Eric Abidal has a cyst in the meniscus of his right knee. Abidal had to leave this morning's training session and the latest reports say he will miss the next two games against Malaga and Basle and if his condition does not improve he could need surgery on the knee. This is bad news for Barça as the French international has been returning to very good form in recent games, hopefully he will make a quick recovery.

There were six Barça players on international duty yesterday and the star of the night was Thierry Henry who scored twice in France's 3-1 win in a friendly against Tunisia. Tunisia took the lead after 30 minutes but France hit back with goals from Henry in minutes 40 and 49. Karim Benzema scored France's third just before the hour. Henry played 83 minutes before being substituted by Malouda. Eric Abidal played the full 90 minutes in central defence.

Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets and Bojan Krkic were all in action for Spain's under-21 team who beat Switzerland 3-1 after extra time to qualify for the under-21s European Championship. Piqué and Bojan played the entire...

Eric Abidal and Thierry Henry have come in for a fair bit of criticism since signing for Barça last summer. Whether Barça are to blame or not I cannot say, but now playing for France they have both had poor tournaments as a lacklustre French team finished bottom of the Group C.

Abidal was moved to centre back to play alongside William Gallas but the decision proved to be extremely costly. After just four minutes a schoolboy error from Abidal allowed Luca Toni a shot on goal that went wide, but in the 24th minute Abidal again allowed Toni to get goalside and then a clumsy tackle from behind saw Italy win a penalty and Abidal sent off for preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity. Pirlo scored from the spot to make it 1-0.

With France down to ten men it was always going to be an uphill st...

Carles Puyol had to come off after 15 minutes with an ankle injury in Spain’s 1-0 win over Italy. The extent of the injury is not clear yet though it is not thought to be serious and he may be ok to play against Betis on Saturday. Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez both completed the 90 minutes while Gianluca Zambrotta came on as a substitute for Italy in the 68th minute.

In tonight's other friendly internationals, Lilian Thuram and Eric Abidal both played 90 minutes in France’s 1-0 win over England in Paris. Thierry Henry missed the game due to more back problems but he has not been ruled out of Barça’s game at Betis. Eidur Gudjohnsen scored Iceland’s winner in the 82nd minute of a 1-2 win in Slovakia. Gabi Milito missed Argentina’s 0-2 win over Egypt in El Cairo ...