Barcelona, Sep 7 : FC Barcelona's Argentine star Lionel Messi returned to the first half of the Wednesday morning group training, the Catalan football club confirmed.

Messi, who was ruled out of Argentina's national squad after picking up a hamstring injury, underwent recovery workouts on the sidelines of the second half of the training session, reports Efe.

Messi's participation against Alavaes next Saturday in the third round of La Liga is still in question, the same as his Portuguese teammate Andre Gomes, who has a right leg injury, as well as Andres Iniesta, who took a blow to the right knee.

Wednesday's training session saw the return of other international players, such as the Croatian Ivan Rakitic, while players from Barcelona B took part in the training as well, including Marlon, Carbonell, Sarsanedas and Moises.