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INJURED SUAREZ EXPECTED TO RETURN FOR MAN UTD DUELS

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Luis Suarez should be fit to take part in Barcelona’s Champions League quarter-final tie against Manchester United after spraining his ankle over the weekend.

Suarez, 32, was substituted in the dying stages of Barca’s 4-1 LaLiga defeat of Real Betis on Sunday evening due to injury, having earlier scored the Catalan club’s third goal of the game.

Barcelona later confirmed Suarez had sprained his ankle during the match, with tests taking place on Monday to determine the true extent of his injury.

These tests confirmed Suarez faces up to 15 days out with his injury.

“Tests carried out on Monday morning have confirmed that first team player Luis Suarez has a sprained right ankle,” the statement read.

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“He will be out for 10-15 days and will now undertake his recovery with the FC Barcelona medical team, having been withdrawn from the Uruguayan national team squad.”

Suarez will now sit out of action throughout the international break due to the issue, with Uruguay facing Uzbekistan and then either China or Thailand in the 2019 China Cup.

However the former Liverpool man is likely to have recovered from his injury before Barcelona take on Man United in the Champions League quarter-finals.

The Camp Nou outfit travel to England for the first leg of their tie on April 10 before Barca host the return fixture six days later.

If Suarez returns within the expected time frame of 10-15 days, he will have over a week between recovering from injury and the first leg tie at Old Trafford

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Ernesto Valverde, the Barcelona manager, will be hoping Suarez can take on United as he has already been dealt one injury blow ahead of the last eight clash. Ousmane Dembele, the winger, has been ruled out of both legs against the Red Devils after tearing a hamstring in last week’s Champions League round of 16 defeat of Lyon

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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