Barcelona will have to continue their march at the top of Spanish soccer's La Liga with coach Tito Vilanova on the sidelines after the club revealed on Wednesday he had suffered a relapse of a tumour on which he was operated just over a year ago.
The 44-year-old, who took over from Pep Guardiola at the start of the season, was thought to have fully recovered from the surgery to remove a growth on his parotid gland, and he was back at work within 15 days.
However, after an operation on Thursday, it is thought he will have treatment for at least six weeks and might not be available to return to work during that time.
Until then, Sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta confirmed on Thursday the side will be led by Vilanova's team, with his assistant Jordi Roura at the helm.
"Without going into too much detail about the sporting side today and whether we win or not at Valladolid on Saturday, just to say we'll continue with our coaching staff and our way of working, we'll be in extraordinary hands and Tito I'm sure will be watching us on TV," he said.
Barca president Sandro Rossell added "the most important thing for the club at this moment is the full recovery of Tito".
Vilanova has led Barcelona to the most successful start to a season in La Liga history, with 15 wins and one draw in 16 matches.
With the final round of La Liga games of 2012 brought forward to allow players an extra day of Christmas holidays, Barca will make it a great finish to the year, on the pitch at least, if they take three points at Valladolid on Saturday.
Last weekend's win over closest rivals Atletico Madrid increased the Catalan side's lead to nine points at the top of the table. With Real Madrid's surprise draw with Espanyol leaving them 13 points back in third, for some the title is already destined for the Nou Camp in May.
That win was followed with the news on Monday that Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernandez will stay at Barca until at least 2016 and Lionel Messi until 2018, and it was all looking positive until Wednesday's shock news.
Atletico play Celta Vigo on Friday in the hope of continuing an excellent run of eight home wins since the league began, to keep up some sort of pressure on the Catalans.
Real Madrid face a tricky trip to fourth-placed Malaga less than a week after manager Jose Mourinho said the title was "almost impossible now."
Malaga come into the game with the best defensive record in the league having conceded only 10 in 16 games.
In other matches, Rayo Vallecano host Levante, Real Sociedad are home to Sevilla, Deportivo La Coruna travel to Espanyol, Valencia take on Getafe, Betis play Mallorca, Osasuna are up against Granada and Athletic Bilbao meet Zaragoza.
Source: http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8582923
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