Barcelona take a 1-0 lead to their Champions League 2nd-leg over Schalke, but will need to play without Ronaldinho & Messi, who are both injured – Weds. Click here for the latest match odds!

Barcelona are using injuries to key players to conceal the fact that a number of these individuals have been left out of the side for indiscipline, a high-ranking official at the club has revealed.

“Look at these gentlemen who aren’t working, who aren’t doing anything, who haven’t played for quite a few weeks. Well, they were sidelined by the club some weeks ago,” president of the club’s economic commission Xavier Sala Martin told Catalunya Radio.

“Although we are disguising things by saying there are injuries and all that, these gentlemen have been sidelined and they are trying to isolate them from the rest of the squad.”

Sala Martin is not a member of the board of directors but his position as the head of the economic commission means that he assumes control of the club during presidential elections.

Barcelona said they had no immediate response to Sala Martin’s declarations.

Sala Martin refused to name the players in question, but Ronaldinho and Deco who have been absent from the squad in recent weeks, are believed to be the subject of much of the speculation.

Ronaldinho was out of action for a month with an unspecified injury but pulled a leg muscle as he was about to return to action last week and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

Deco, meanwhile, has been out since last month with a calf injury.

Sala Martin defended the rest of the Barcelona squad, saying they should not be tainted by association with the ‘injured’ players.

“It is unfair that because of the behaviour of one, two or three who are partying all day and that only go to 22 training sessions out of 60 that all the players are being lazy,” he said.

Barcelona take a 1-0 lead to their Champions League 2nd-leg over Schalke, but will need to play without Ronaldinho & Messi, who are both injured – Weds. Click here for the latest match odds!