Messi has returned to training with the Catalan club after spending Christmas in Argentina, while team-mate Andres Iniesta is also back after recovering from an injury he picked up in the last round of the cup competition, and could return to the team against Osasuna.

But Guardiola said he would play it safe with his two stars and had not yet decided if they would play.

"All the decisions are made by me. I ask him (Lionel Messi) if he can play, not that I have asked him, but if I asked him if he could play I know exactly what his answer would be," Guardiola said.

"That would be the same answer if I asked Maxwell, Adriano or Xavi or Iniesta who has just come back to us, if they wanted to play tomorrow."

"Today he (Andres Iniesta) trained. Today he did three quarters of the training session, which he did fully and he was very good. He was training at a level which is the best of Andres."

"He he is playing well and looks good but we will see. He has done two training sessions in two days, so maybe playing a full 90 minutes is a bit too much, but we will see tomorrow."