Barça pair make Stuttgart trip

FC Barcelona have included Daniel Alves and Xavi Hernández in a 20-man squad for the trip to Germany for Tuesday's UEFA Champions League meeting with VfB Stuttgart despite not yet receiving the all-clear to play in the first leg.

Both players trained apart from the rest of their team-mates following Saturday's 4-0 Liga triumph over Real Racing Club. Alves has been out with a calf injury since 6 February while Xavi is nursing a thigh problem and neither is certain to be fit in time to face the Bundesliga side at the VfB Arena.

In other injury news, Zlatan Ibrahimović complained of discomfort in his right ankle shortly prior to Barça's encounter with Racing and was left out of Josep Guardiola's matchday squad, while Carles Puyol received a blow to the face during the game and was substituted as a precaution. Both are expected to return against Stuttgart, as is Yaya Touré who recovered from a thigh thigh complaint to face Racing, but Eric Abidal (groin) and Seydou Keita (hamstring) are out.