Sanchez, Thiago return to Barça training

Barcelona today announced that Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez and his Spanish midfielder Thiago Alcantara have both returned to training after spells on the sidelines. "Both players are recovering satisfactorily from their respective injuries and trained alongside their team-mates at Camp Nou," the club said on their website. Sanchez sustained a tear to his right adductor muscle in a La Liga match against Sporting Gijon, while Thiago injured his right shin, causing both players to miss the 7-1 thrashing of Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League last week. French left-back Eric Abidal also returned to training after injuring his right hip in France's 2-1 friendly win over Germany at the beginning of the month, but he is not yet ready to resume training with his team-mates. Barça have qualified for the Champions League quarter-finals, but remain ten points Real Madrid in La Liga, ahead of Saturday's trip to Sevilla.