Rio de Janeiro July 29 (IANS) Chapecoense air disaster survivor Alan Ruschel will make his return to football in the Brazilian club s friendly against Barcelona next month.
The teams will play for the Joan Gamper trophy on August 7 at the Camp Nou just over eight months after 19 Chapecoense players and all of the team s coaching staff died in a plane crash in Colombia reports Xinhua news agency.
"Alan s return marks an important step in his recuperation as well as for the club s reconstruction " Chapecoense said in a statement on Friday.
"Considering the importance and magnitude of this game ... it was understood to be the ideal occasion for a return."
Seventy-one people died when the LaMia chartered plane in which Chapecoense were travelling ran out of fuel and plunged into a hillside near Medellin.
Most of the club s directors and 20 journalists were also killed. There were just six survivors: three Chapecoense players two flight staff and a journalist.
--IANS
tri/vm
