A knee injury forced Luis Suarez to sit out of Barcelona’s wins over PSV Eindhoven and Villarreal last week. 

Now Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde believes that the Uruguayan can return in time for the Catalan derby on Saturday. 

The forward has made good progress ahead of the Espanyol clash. Barcelona then host Tottenham in the final group stage fixture in the Champions League. 

Since the five-time champions have already qualified as group winners, Suarez could be rested for the European fixture. 

“We are optimistic for the game against Espanyol,” said Barca coach Valverde on Tuesday ahead of Barcelona’s clash against Cultural Leonesa in the second leg of the Copa del Rey’s round of 32.  

“Tomorrow he will not be available but we hope he is for Saturday. It does not mean he is going to be but we are optimists and that is what we want.”  

Luka Modric was announced as the Ballon d’Or winner on Monday and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi was ranked fifth on the list behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe. Valverde refused to comment on the credibility of these rankings. 

“I will not go into assessing whether the prize is right or not, I’m not the one who has to explain it, they are,” Valverde said.  

“We congratulate Modric in any case because he is a great player.”