Ousmane Dembele back on bench for Barcelona’s Copa del Rey clash with Celta Vigo

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Camp Nou, Jan 4: Barcelona's record signing Ousmane Dembele has been given the green light to come back to playing activity after four months being on the sidelines.

The 20-year-old France forward, who joined Barcelona for a record £96.8m in August from Borussia Dortmund became the second most costly player in history when the Catalan club contributed a large portion of the £200.6m they got from Neymar's selling to Paris St Germain this Summer.

However, the youngster sadly injured his hamstring just after making three appearances for the club and had to be limped off against Getafe on September 16.

The France attacker afterwards went under the knife in Finland and since the last one month has been working his way back to full fitness.

Now he has been given the nod by Barca's medical team and the club declared the news with a statement.

The statement read: "After a lengthy recovery process from an injury to the femoral biceps on his left thigh, the 20-year-old Frenchman is now available for Ernesto Valverde."

Barcelona will travel to Celta Vigo to begin their 2018 fixture list today and although being fit, Dembele might start the game from the bench only.

Barcelona have already released their travelling squad for the game and the list included some surprising exclusion as Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Andres Iniesta all being left at home.

Suarez and Messi only returned to training on Tuesday following an extended Christmas break in South America and will not be risked in Vigo whereas Iniesta is being rested ahead of the La Liga visit of Levante

Valverde also chose to left out two sporadic players Gerard Deulofeu and Arda Turan which ignited the speculation of their January transfer more.

Full Barcelona matchday squad to face Celta: Cillessen, Ter Stegen, Semedo, Sergi Roberto, Pique, Vermaelen, Mascherano, Busquets, Jordi Alba, Digne, Rakitic, Paulinho, Denis Suarez, Andre Gomes, Aleix Vidal, Alena, Arnaiz.