Barca travels early to avoid ash clouds
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Only two months after having surgery to remove a tumor from his liver, Eric Abidal is ready to line up with Barcelona teammates Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez in Saturday's Champions League final against Manchester United.
Abidal, who missed the 2-0 win over United in the 2009 final because of suspension, says he is ready to play at Wembley Stadium.
The 31-year-old France defender says returning from his illness was not easy but "mentally I was strong."
Xavi says Abidal's return is an "amazing" story after his "life or death" ordeal, adding the France defender's competitiveness is an "example" for the rest of the team.
Meanwhile, Barcelona has brought forward its journey to London for the Wembley final and was to fly out late last evening due to the potential disruption to flights caused by a cloud of Icelandic volcanic ash.
"Given the uncertainty caused by the ash from the Grimsvotn volcano, the FC Barcelona first team will travel to London today, Tuesday, at 2200 hours (2000 GMT)," Barca said in a statement on its website.
Toni Freixa, spokesman for the Spanish club's board of directors, said Barca had three options for the journey:
A direct flight to London on Tuesday evening, a flight to Paris on Tuesday evening and a train through the Channel Tunnel to London on Wednesday morning or an overnight train to Paris on Tuesday and a train to London the next morning.
Barcelona's players and officials had planned to travel to the British capital today. "We are looking to reduce the risk for the first team to zero," Freixa said.
Europe's air traffic control organization said yesterday if volcanic emissions continued at the same rate the cloud could reach western French and northern Spanish airspace today.
Barcelona was forced to travel by bus to Milan for its Champions League semifinal first leg against Inter Milan last season after a different Icelandic volcano erupted and caused air travel gridlock across Europe. It lost the match 1-3 and went out 2-3 on aggregate after the return leg in Barcelona.
Barcelona beat Spanish rival Real Madrid to progress to the final this year.
