Xavi will have full Barcelona squad at his disposal on December 26

Argentina, Croatia, France, and Morocco remain the last four teams standing in the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar and we are just a week away from seeing new world champions being crowned.

Heading into the tournament, Barcelona had as many as 17 players participating at the World Cup. However, following the quarterfinal matches, only two remain – Jules Kounde and Ousmane Dembele, whose France team beat England last night.

With the remaining 15 players getting eliminated from the World Cup, they are expected to slowly integrate into Xavi’s training plans over the next weeks as Barça prepare for the restart of the second half of the season.

According to AS, Xavi is expected to have his full-strength squad back at his disposal by December 26, which will be five days before they play RCD Espanyol in their first game following the resumption of the campaign.

Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and defender Andreas Christensen will be the first two to return to training on December 12, Monday, as they were eliminated from the World Cup at the group stage itself.

Ronald Araujo, who was part of the Uruguay squad even while recovering from injury, is expected to return to Ciutat Esportiva on Tuesday after being given a brief vacation to travel to his native.

Robert Lewandowski is in line to join the training camp on Wednesday following Poland’s Round of 16 elimination while the Spain contingent of Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Eric Garcia, Pedri, Gavi, Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati will return on Friday, December 16.

The latest Barcelona players to be eliminated – Memphis Depay, Frenkie de Jong and Raphinha – all of whom were knocked out of the quarterfinals, are expected to be back at the club base on December 19, Monday.

Meanwhile, Dembele and Kounde, who progressed to the semifinals with France will be expected to be back by December 26, should they go all the way to the finals next Sunday.