Barcelona’s friendly against Juventus is CANCELLED just hours before kick-off as LaLiga champions are forced to withdraw after a virus hits ‘significant part’ of their squad

Barcelona’s pre-season match has been called off hours before kick-off due to a virus hitting the Spanish champions’ squad. 

The European giants were set to meet at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, kicking off at 3:30am GMT, but Barca were forced to withdraw.

According to Spanish outlet Sport, a minimum of fifteen players have been affected including Jules Jounde, Alejandro Balde, Eric Garcia, and new signing Oriol Romeu. Xavi has not contracted the virus, although some of his assistants have. 

A club statement said: ‘Barcelona hereby informs that the game against Juventus, scheduled for today, July 22 at 7:30pm at Levi’s Stadium, as part of the Soccer Champions Tour, has been cancelled. A significant part of the Blaugrana squad has viral gastroenteritis.’ 

Gastroenteritis is a common bacterial infection which causes diarrhoea and vomiting, affecting around 20% of people in the UK each year. 

In lieu of the match, Juventus have promised to hold a training session at the ground, starting an hour before kick-off would have taken place. 

Barcelona have pulled out of their Juventus match due to a viral gastroenteritis outbreak

Barcelona did not even travel to Santa Clara due to the outbreak, it is understood.

The Soccer Champions Tour is a showpiece summer event involving six leading teams.

Manchester United, Arsenal, Barcelona, Juventus, Real Madrid and AC Milan will battle it out until early August across several venues in America as part of the competition. 

Xavi was expected to hand out debuts to new faces such as Ilkay Gundogan as this would have been La Blaugrana’s first friendly of the summer. 

In recent days former Southampton man Romeu returned to the Catalan giants after 12 years away from the club where he graduated as a youth player.