Messi, who was rested for the 5-4 defeat to Levante, also made a brief appearance for Barca during their Mandela Centenary Cup win over South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns in midweek.

"He's played a lot of minutes this season and that includes playing with injuries," Valverde told reporters on Saturday. "Now is the moment for him to rest a little.

"He played for 15 minutes in South Africa for contractual reasons. The idea is that he rests."

Sunday's game at Camp Nou will also double up as a farewell to Andres Iniesta, who will leave Barca at the end of the season.

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Premier League Table

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Real Madrid	33	26	6	1	71	22	49	84
2	Girona Girona	33	22	5	6	69	40	29	71
3	Barcelona	32	21	7	4	64	37	27	70
4	Atletico Madrid Atletico	33	20	4	9	62	39	23	64
5	Athletic Bilbao	33	16	10	7	53	33	20	58
6	Real Sociedad	33	13	12	8	46	35	11	51
7	Real Betis Betis	32	12	12	8	40	38	2	48
8	Valencia	32	13	8	11	35	34	1	47
9	Getafe	33	10	13	10	41	45	-4	43
10	Villarreal	32	11	9	12	51	55	-4	42
11	Osasuna	32	11	6	15	37	46	-9	39
12	Alaves Alaves	33	10	8	15	31	38	-7	38
13	Sevilla	32	9	10	13	41	45	-4	37
14	Las Palmas Las Palmas	33	10	7	16	30	41	-11	37
15	Rayo Vallecano	32	7	13	12	27	39	-12	34
16	Mallorca	32	6	13	13	26	38	-12	31
17	Celta Vigo	33	7	10	16	37	50	-13	31
18	Cadiz Cadiz	32	4	13	15	22	45	-23	25
19	Granada	32	3	9	20	33	61	-28	18
20	Almeria	33	1	11	21	32	67	-35	14