FIFA’s infamous international breaks are dreaded by most club soccer fans, who think that they kill the momentum of the league season and add extra weight on the legs of key players. However, depending on the circumstances, the “FIFA Virus” can provide certain benefits.

In FC Barcelona’s case, this upcoming international break does a huge favor to the injury-plagued squad managed by Pep Guardiola, giving them a break from La Liga and allowing players such as Cesc Fabregas, Eric Abidal, Andres Iniesta and Alexis Sanchez to recover from their recent muscle injuries.

In other words, if there were no international fixtures this weekend, Barcelona would have had to face Racing Santander at home missing some of their key stars. Needless to say, Guardiola’s side would have still shown off a strong lineup. However, the fact that the injured players get more breathing space in their recoveries means a lot in the long term view of the season.

Barça will then go into the Racing match in two weeks time, hopefully with the medical green light already been given to Abidal and Iniesta. Fabregas will most likely be in the final stages of his recuperation, while Alexis still has a few weeks to go. The Chilean midfielder will spend the rest of his recovery in his home country.

Ibrahim Afellay, on the other hand, will not return until late-April, so the international break for him is virtually irrelevant. With that being said however, there is a rumor going around in the Catalan press that Dutch National team coach Bert van Marwijk still sees “Ibi” as a key player in his squad for the European Championship in the summer. If this is true, it will be a huge moral boost for a player that does not deserve the suffering he is going through.

On other occasions, the “FIFA Virus” has done no good for Barça. For example, Pep’s side would go on a brilliant run of 4 wins in a row, with plenty of goals scored in each match. Then, the players would go play for their respective national teams, come back with heavy legs and an away trip to, lets say, Mallorca, and get a draw. Realistically, the “FIFA Virus” has more drawbacks than benefits because players like Xavi and Puyol are not getting any younger, yet they still have to play for Spain and risk injury.

An example that I can recall in which the “FIFA Virus” has benefitted a team goes back to the 2008-2009 season for Manchester United. It was in mid-March when Sir Alex Ferguson’s boys had come off of beating Inter Milan 2-0 in the round of 16 of the Champions League. The two games after that were disastrous for United, losing 4-1 at home to Liverpool and 2-0 away to Fulham. The next week was an international break, and it was seen as a period for Ferguson to collect his thoughts and find out exactly what was going wrong in his side.

United came back from the international break to face Aston Villa at home, in a game that was famously won by teenage striker Federico Macheda in the dying embers of the game. Guardiola can use this period in a similar fashion. He needs to figure out exactly why four members of his squad have suffered the same injury in such a small period of time. The fact that Iniesta, Cesc, Alexis and Abidal all have hamstring injuries not only worries me about the squad’s fitness this season, but also cannot be considered a coincidence.

Maybe the players diet, a new warm up or stretch that Guardiola has implemented, or some other unknown factor has caused these hamstring troubles. I do not exactly know what the reason is, but if Guardiola is able to figure out the root cause and finds a way to avoid it, he will be doing his players an immense favor.

On that note, I am looking forward to seeing Puyol wear the Spain jersey once again, and for the 95th time. Hopefully he has a good performance and stays fit, because the fact that he is playing regularly for Barça again is the best news in Can Barça since the recovery of Abidal (liver cancer) and the win at Wembley in May.

Article written by Barcaloco contributor Keenan Manresa. Follow Keenan on Twitter at @knnza.