Iniesta in contention to face Alaves

Barcelona's Andres Iniesta hopes to make a return for his club against Alaves this weekend after a month's layoff due to knee injury.

Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta admits to being optimistic about a return for Barcelona this weekend.

Andres Iniesta hopes to make his Barcelona return against Alaves this weekend after a month on the sidelines with a knee injury. The 32-year-old has not featured for Luis Enrique's side since last month's Supercopa de Espana first-leg win over Sevilla due to a strained right knee.

Iniesta had spoken positively about his rehabilitation earlier this week and he now hopes to prove his fitness to enable him to feature at Camp Nou.

"I started to do things with the ball this week, but we will have to see how it reacts," he is quoted as saying by AS .  "Right now I cannot say because I have not trained with the team. I am optimistic because the knee is responding well. When you're out of the team you want to play, but the feelings have to be good and must have some patience."