Boca Juniors have received the good news that influential full-back Hugo Ibarra will be back in contention for a place in their squad to face Argentinos Juniors at the weekend.

Ibarra has been out of action since breaking the external menisco ligament in his left-knee after a clash with Daniel Bilos during Boca's opening pre-season friendly against San Lorenzo on the 19th January.

It was expected that he would be out of action for over a month, but Ibarra has recovered sufficiently to receive the medical discharge to return to training.

He missed the rest of their pre-season build-up and also their 1-1 draw with Rosario Central in the opening game of the Argentine Clausura on Sunday, but will now be available for their second Clausura game against Argentinos Juniors this coming weekend.

Ibarra is likely to come back into the team in place of usual centre-back Jonatan Maidana, who deputised at right-back against Rosario and also played in that position in Argentina U-23's 5-0 victory over Guatemala last week.

Maidana believes that the return of Ibarra can only be good for the team and expects Boca to improve as they play more games under new coach Carlos Ischia.

"As we play more games we will start to improve... we must try to demonstrate to people that we are a great team," he told Olé.

Although Ibarra's return is good news for Ischia, he is still likely to be without Pablo Ledesma for Sunday's tie, so Álvaro González will continue in midfield.

Good news for Boca, even though he's getting on in years, Ibarra is a pretty good defender, and h's got a great shot on him!