Barcelona defender Pique to miss Clasico

The stopper was unable to participate in the Blaugrana's last training session before Sunday's crunch derby, leaving Mascherano and Song as the most likely centre-backs

Barcelona have confirmed that Gerard Pique will miss the Clasico against Real Madrid after failing to recover from an ankle injury in time.

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The Spain international contracted a sprain in the Champions League win over Spartak Moscow on September 19 and had been working hard to prove his fitness for the clash with the Blancos, which included double training sessions over the past few days.

But despite also participating in a work-out with the rest of his team-mates on Saturday, Pique failed to train in Sunday's last session, instead spending much of midday undertaking specific gym work.

The call has since been made by coach Tito Vilanova to not include the former Manchester United man in his squad following a meeting between the duo, and it looks increasingly likely that Javier Mascherano and Alex Song will deputise in defence.

However, young trio Cristian Tello, Sergi Roberto and Oier Olazabal were present and could yet be named in the former assistant's final party for the visit of Madrid.