With 48 hours to go before the momentous second leg of the Champions League semifinals at the Spotify Camp Nou (Thursday, 6:45 p.m.), all eyes are on a footballer: Alexia Putellas. In the next few hours it will be known if the captain of FC Barcelona has the ok from the medical services and can enter the call against Chelsea. As La Vanguardia has learned, the midfielder wants to return. Her feelings are good and her recovery process is progressing as planned, to which must be added the powerful appeal of returning to a venue like the Camp Nou and in the Champions League semifinals. But from her environment they warn that the main objective is not to rush her return.

And it is that not even ten months have passed since his injury to the cruciate ligaments. The same for which Bruna Vilamala, Jana Fernàndez or Cata Coll, spent more than a year in dry dock. Although it is true that each body responds differently, neither the club’s medical services nor anyone else wants to expose the two-time Ballon d’Or player to a relapse. And more, taking into account that this type of injury has a much higher rate of relapse in the case of women.

In the locker room they are aware of the expectation that is being generated and protect their captain: “It is not good, especially for her, that this pressure is put on her because obviously the first one who wants to return is her. You have to be aware of the seriousness of the injury she has had and not put more pressure on the player. People have to be happy that everything is going well and they will return when they have to return ”, Sandra Paños explained this Monday.

“Alexia is an intelligent aunt and she already knew what was going to happen in this stage of her recovery, she is very aware,” confessed Patri Guijarro, who assured that the entire club is committed to her: “Both the club and we are helping her . Obviously, whatever it means to feel as little pressure as possible, the better for her, because it’s not an easy injury.”

The Blaugrana captain accompanied the team on the trip to Stamford Bridge, from where Jonatan Giráldez asked the midfielder for patience and warned that she had only completed two full training sessions with the group. Ten days after the ten months since he was injured on July 5, at the gates of making his debut with Spain in the Eurocup, prudence is maximum and no decision will be made until the last minute, when they are sure that the sensations of the player and those of the medical staff go accordingly.

Having Alexia back is an injection of morale for the team, whether or not she has a medical clearance, and her presence in training is perceived as extremely important to her teammates: “Seeing her train with us gives us great joy. We are very happy for her and we see her very happy in training, soccer is her passion, ”explained Patri Guijarro. Paños, for his part, stressed that “the important thing is that she feels good and has good sensations” and warned that we will have to be patient until she picks up the competition rhythm: “Obviously until she reaches her highest level she still has time left, but We see it very similar to what it was and little by little it has to be filmed”.