The Injuries:

Dani Alves has returned to training after missing over a week of action with a muscle injury. He should be available for Barca’s match against Getafe on Saturday.

Real Madrid’s unofficial newspaper of record, Marca, ran a story this week about Kaka’s nagging hernia injury that limited his appearances this winter. The paper claimed that this is something that will be an issue for him for the rest of his career, and will require a specific training regiment before every match.

I personally do not think that this has dramatically altered his play since coming back from injury. However, this does now increase the need to have a capable playmaker on the national team roster in case Kaka was to suffer any setbacks this summer. Julio Baptista apparently thinks he has the inside track on this role, telling Globo, “I don’t think I will have problems. Dunga has called me as back-up to Kaka. If Ronaldinho is called then he will be in a different role to me.”

I hope Dunga is thinking differently. As it’s been well noted, Julio Baptista’s appearances for Roma have been a rarity. I watched his play against Udinese on Wednesday in the Coppa Italia and was far from impressed. He played about 30 minutes in the second half and was a non factor in the match. Baptista is just not the creative, distributing player that Kaka is. The only two people that can even come close to filling that role are Ronaldinho and Diego, and either one deserves Baptista’s spot on the roster right now. Only in Brazil’s match against Ecuador in Quito, almost a year ago, has he been a noticeable player for club or country.

The Contract:

Despite having an up and down year, Real Madrid has penned Marcelo to a new five-year contract than runs until 2015. This, coupled with the fact that he has played in all but one match for the club this year, is a clear signal that Los Merengues are firmly committed to the player.

The Party:

The other story of the week was Ronaldinho being fined by AC Milan after they discovered he attended a party the week of their derby defeat to Inter Milan. He responded on his website that “I was a guest at a hotel, but it’s not true that I organized a party, even less true are the details that were reported…I have worked very hard in these few months and I think it’s not right that these old images are used to explain a negative result or invent a story on me.”

So clearly he was at a party. At the same time, it did not sound like a big deal. However, his reputation has put him in a position where he is not going to get the benefit of the doubt from too many people. I think, and hope, Dunga gives him that benefit this time around and calls him up next week.