Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde has left the door open for a potential January exit for Arturo Vidal.

The Chilean midfielder has seen his minutes on the pitch drastically reduced this season and has been handed just three starts in Barcelona’s LaLiga campaign.

Vidal was brought on a second-half substitute in Barcelona’s 5-2 thrashing of Real Mallorca on Saturday in what was his third straight appearance from the bench in the league.

The victory, spurred by a 53rd career hat-trick by Lionel Messi, saw Barcelona return to the top of the league table.

Speaking ahead of the clash, Valverde indicated that a call on Vidal’s future will be taken in January.

“Vidal is our player. We are happy with him. There are so many rumours,” the former Athletico Bilbao manager said.

“And when the January transfer window arrives, we will see what happens.

“There’s a lot of things going on in January but it’s true that we have a lot of midfielders.”

Another Barcelona midfielder who has been on the fringes of the squad this season is Ivan Rakitic with the Croatian’s potential exit from the club drawing plenty of speculation.

Valverde, however, suggested that Rakitic remains a key member of the Barca midfield.

“He’s a reliable player in a lot of ways,” Valverde stated.

“In the same way that there have been moments when he has not featured, he has continued training with the same intensity to seize his opportunity.

He’s played at a good level and we’re happy with that. We’ll see what happens in the next few games. He has emerged in a difficult period,”

Rakitic has now started the last two league games for Barcelona which have amounted wins against Atletico Madrid and Real Mallorca.