Barcelona president Joan Laporta has come out in front of Spanish media on Wednesday to deny the reported rift between the club and its Brazilian star forward Ronaldinho.

"There is no divorce between Barcelona and Ronaldinho," said Laporta.

The former World Player of the Year has suffered a succession of injury and fitness problems, and there're rumors around that Barcelona are prepared to offload him at the end of the season.

"We hope Ronaldinho will be back as soon as possible, but at the moment he is suffering some pain and we have to respect that. While he has got this pain we can't count on him," said Laporta, insisting that the 28-year-old was still part of coach Frank Rijkaard's plans.

"The coach would like to have Ronaldinho at his disposal, but if that isn't possible we will just have to carry on without him," he said.

Barcelona have won just one of their last four Primera Liga matches but are only four points behind leaders Real Madrid with nine matches left to play.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2008)