Valverde talks Messi and Busquets fitness ahead of Sevilla clash

Ernesto Valverde has been talking to the press ahead of tomorrow’s game against Sevilla and unsurprisingly a certain Lionel Messi was the focus of many questions.

The Barca boss also talked about Sergio Busquets and Sevilla - here are the best bits:

Valverde on Sevilla

It is a key game. It is a very difficult stadium and a win would be very favourable to our aim of winning the title. We want to pick up the three points tomorrow, it’s an attractive match and a victory would give us a boost.

Valverde on Messi

We are taking care of Messi, because he has a small problem and we have to avoid making it worse. We have to see how he is after today’s training session.

Valverde on Messi’s morale after Argentina’s heavy defeat to Spain

He seems relaxed, we’ve talked about how things have gone. everybody obviously likes to win, we’re not going to fool anyone and everyone who works in this area is used to criticism but he’s fine.

Valverde on Busquets

Hopefully, he will be available to play against Roma.

Valverde on injuries

The physical side of things you have to think about because you have to replace the injured player but the most important thing is mentality. This month we have options in all three competitions. We need to have the energy to compete for everything and what we don’t want is to have physical problems that hurt the team.

Valverde on Yerry Mina

He could replace Lucas [Digne] in the squad, he’s training really well and we’ve very happy with him.