Ilkay Gündoğan has been ruled out of Barcelona's LaLiga opener at Valencia on Saturday (ABC, ESPN+ and ESPN Deportes), adding to the Catalan side's injury woes ahead of the new season.
Gündoğan, 33, sustained a blow to the head in Monday's 3-0 Joan Gamper Trophy defeat to Monaco and will miss the trip to Mestalla as a precaution.
The Germany international joins Gavi, Frenkie de Jong, Ronald Araújo and Ansu Fati on the sidelines, while Fermín López is yet to return from his break following his performances for Spain at this summer's European Championships and Olympics.
Summer signing Dani Olmo, who arrived for 55 million euros ($60.6 million) from RB Leipzig, is also unavailable despite training with his new team-mates over the past week.
Barca manager Hansi Flick says the Spanish international is not fit enough to feature, but his signing has not yet been registered with La Liga either, as Blaugrana is looking to create room within the league-imposed spending limit to sign him.
The registrations of Iñigo Martínez, Pau Victor, Marc Casadó and Pablo Torre were finally processed this Friday, leaving those of Olmo and the forward Vitor Roque pending.
However, sources have told ESPN that Brazilian striker Roque, signed for €35m in January, has been told he can find a new club before the transfer window closes this month, either on loan or on a permanent deal.
Elsewhere, Pedri returns to the Barca squad to face Valencia after missing pre-season with an injury sustained in Spain's Euro 2024 quarter-final win over Germany in July.
Flick says Pedri could play some role in the second half, meaning youngsters Casadó, Torre and Marc Bernal are the only natural midfielders fit to start, although Andreas Christensen and Raphinha can also be used centrally.
