Barcelona's players have had more days off than Real Madrid's Real Madrid | Barcelona Nine more than Los Blancos

Barcelona's players have enjoyed nine more days of rest than their counterparts at Real Madrid, following both teams' return from their respective pre-season tours.

Ernesto Valverde has granted 26 days off to his men, while Zinedine Zidane only allowed them to miss training on 17 occasions.

The Blaugrana coach defended his club's policy and explained that his players may need more days of rest.

"Do you think they are a lot of [days off]? They seem few to me," Valverde said.

"If they continue taking away weekend games from us, what are we going to do?

"We continue with the same pattern as always and I will not change it.

"What I'm going to try is to give them some more days off."

Real Madrid's policy changed after the 3-0 thrashing against Paris Saint-Germain in France.

Zidane had given 12 days off to his players from July 27 until September 19, and since then they only got the chance to rest six times, while the next is planned for November 10, after the trip to Eibar.

Up until that day of September, Valverde has only granted his players two days of rest more than the Frenchman and the difference in the last month a half has been remarkable.

During this period, Barcelona men have been allowed to miss training nine times, while their Real Madrid counterparts didn't train on five days.

The Catalans usually rest one day per week, while Zidane's side go five weeks without stopping.

Meanwhile, players' rest days vary between internationals and non-internationals, as Gerard Pique has enjoyed 26 days, while Sergio Busquets or Antoine Griezmann have had 18 days off.

The same happens at Real Madrid as Karim Benzema has had 17 days of rest, but Luka Modric or Casemiro have had just 10.

Players such as Sergio Ramos and Dani Carvajal could have received special treatment at times and may have been granted a few days more, but they preferred to participate in training, as happened in the last break.