A team of medical experts working on Olympiue Lyon defender, John Mensah's latest injury have assured the rugged defender that he would be available for Lyon's crunch Champions League first leg clash against Barcelona next month. The deputy Black Stars skipper told 90 MINUTES in a telephone interview that though he feared missing the crucial game against the Catalans, the club's medical staff has assured him that he would get back to fitness much earlier to bolster the Lyon defence against the marauding Barca attacking trio of Messi, Eto'o and Henry. “I was worried at first that the injury would keep me out of the big game till Friday morning when the doctors confirmed to me that I would be ready before the game against Barcelona. That sounds really good because I really want to be part of the Lyon squad for the big game. The coaches are quite happy with the news because we need to go into the game devoid of any injuries,” he stressed.

Mensah reiterated that though he was of the initial opinion that he would be sidelined for quite some time, he is more likely to return earlier. “Hopefully I would start serious training in about 2-3 weeks time if everything goes well which would give me enough time to prepare for the Barca game. We all know how fast and dangerous these Barcelona strikers can be so it would be better to prepare well for them,” he added. It will be recalled that Mensah pulled a hamstring injury last week when he was training with the rest of the Lyon squad ahead of the weekend's French Ligue 1 game against Grenoble.