Thierry Henry might not make his Barcelona debut against Dundee United next week, because the former Arsenal striker isnt fit enough.
Scottish supporters were hoping to see the French international play alongside Ronaldinho at Tannadice next Thursday evening, but it turns out the 29-year-old isn`t upto the challenge.
After several months without competitive football, Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard has decided Henry will not start either of the Scottish friendlies – but hasn`t completely ruled out Henry making an appearance as a substitute late in game.
Following Henry`s widely publicised £16.1m move to Barcelona last month, there has been increased interest in the Catalan side`s “golfing” trip to Scotland.
Tickets for the sell out match between Dundee United & Barcelona friendly, on the 26th of July, have been selling on eBay for upto £150 each.
Henry missed out on almost 4 months of competitive action with Arsenal, after a variety of injuries kept him sidelined towards the end of last season.
The former Monaco and Juventus hitman – who is reported to be earning over £100,000 a week at the Nou Camp – had made it his number-one priority to be injury-free by the start of the new season.
“Ten days ago I resumed training, but for four months before that, I did nothing,” Henry told the Sport.
“I’m not yet prepared for the beginning of competitive football, so it’s important to take things a little at a time.”
‘After four months without playing, I’d rather take it slowly to be in as good a condition as possible.”
‘Even though I’ve barely trained, I’m feeling good now. I can’t wait to get started as soon as these physical annoyances are out of the way.’
Barcelona coach Rijkaard admitted he isn`t taking the friendly match against Dundee United very seriously, even though United already have an impressive record of 4 competitive wins out of 4 over the Catalan giants.
It’s a game, that is all,’ he told the Scotsman last month.
‘It’s about getting back into the rhythm again, and for that you need games. To be honest, I am not really thinking about winning or losing.’
Although, Rijkaard might be forgiven for not giving a hastily arranged friendly against Dundee United his full concentration, because Barcelona clearly have ambitions to walk away with the Spanish League title and the Champions League trophy in the forthcoming campaign.
‘It’s a dream for everyone to win the Champions League and I’m sure it’ll be the dream of Barcelona to win it again next season,” Thierry Henry admitted to the BBC.
‘It’s the only thing I didn’t win at Arsenal but the most important thing is that Barcelona is successful and they win silverware.’
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lucky you
What does that mean? Surely it should be “Lucky Henry”, because after Thursday night it will be 5 out of 5.
looks like you’ll have to mahe do with Ronaldinho, Messi, Eto’o instead – it’s a hard life 🙂 »»Arsene Knows««