Barça's Valverde thinks Pique is "really focused on his football"
The defender has many other interests outside of the game
Gerard Pique's been at the centre of the storm over the last week after making mistakes as Barcelona dropped points against Girona and Leganes.
His errors in the two games have coincided with Pique's launch of the new Davis Cup in tennis, which is due to take place in Madrid starting from 2019.
On top of everything, Barça will also be without centre-back Samuel Umtiti for Athletic Bilbao's visit on Saturday due to an injury.
Therefore, it was inevitable that Valverde would be asked about Pique in his pre-game press conference on Friday.
"He seeems very focused on his football," the Bara coach said when asked about the Catalan's mistakes in relation to his other business interests.
However, he didn't rule out resting him against Athletic: "We have three centre-backs now [with Umtiti injured]. Pique's been playing all the time, so it's a possibility that he rests and that Lenglet and Vermaelen play together. We will see."
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