A grateful Coach Rijkaard gets a good Christmas present in advance, but waits on Thierry Henry to complete the player return gift package.


Barca coach Frank Rijkaard will have a happy Christmas if in addition to the return of most of his injured players, and of course Thierry Henry as well, FC Barcelona snatch the maximum three points in their three remaining matches. This starts with the very important match tonight against Deportivo La Coruna that should close the seven point gap between the second-placed Barca and first-placed Real Madrid in the la Liga table. This will be a nice prelude to the Christmas period clash with Real Madrid themselves at Camp Nou. However, one star that remains absent is French goal king, Thierry Henry. About the injured goal merchant, Frank Rijkaard says:

I think he’ll be OK, and so does he. He has played a lot of games without feeling 100%. He’s played well considering state of injury, and now we’ve decided to give him time to recover. He could be a key player in the second half of the league, but he has to get back to full fitness first.

Rijkaard then spoke about the joy of having Deco Anderson and Samuel Eto'o back to the Barca squad:

It’s always better to play with a full squad. It’s a happy moment for the team and the players.

Finally, the Dutchman expressed his views on the Cameroonian's impending absence to join his African colleagues in the continental championship starting next month in the West African country of Ghana:

Eto'o is a player with class,unique talent,personality and character. He's an important player for us because of the way he plays. Now he is about to leave again for the African Nations Cup next month and won't be available for sometime. We can try to prevent this, but we have to respect FIFA’s rules. I’d prefer him to stay, but there’s nothing we can do about it.