Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino has said his side's growing injury list should not serve as an excuse if they fail to keep their 100 percent home league record going against Granada on Saturday. The Catalans will be without World Player of the Year Lionel Messi for the first time since he tore his left hamstring, and they were dealt another huge blow when goalkeeper Victor Valdes was ruled out for the rest of the year with a calf injury in midweek.
Dani Alves, Xavi Hernandez and long-term absentee Jordi Alba are also missing from Martino's threadbare squad, but the Argentine believes those coming in should have enough quality to solidify Barca's place at the top of La Liga.
"It is a difficult game for what Granada represent and what they are doing away from home this season," he said. "They have had a lot of good away results and I think that is where the primary difficulty comes from.
"The situation with the injuries is what it is. I think they serve only to be excuses and we should never allow them to take away from an upcoming game.
"I don't want to undermine the importance of those that are missing, nor the merit of those that will come in, but ever since I arrived here I have spoken about the quality of our squad so I don't see why we should be weaker.
"We are without the best player in the world and the best goalkeeper in the world, but we have good replacements."
However, Martino insisted that at the moment there is no plans to make any significant changes to his side's training regime.
"The serious injuries we have suffered have been those to Jordi, Leo and Victor. There have been other minor muscular injuries, but, generally, there is no concern at the moment. If we have a much greater number then it is something we would have to look at."
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