After being out injured since May 2006, Del Horno was included in Quique Flores's 18-man squad that will play at bottom club Gimnastic Tarragona on Sunday.

Del Horno tore the achilles tendon on his left ankle while part of Spain's World Cup squad and never made it to Germany.

His comeback was almost delayed by the death of his grandfather in Bilbao on Friday but his family insisted that he returned to Valencia and travelled with the team. Valencia, the 2002 and 2004 Spanish champions have climbed to third in La Liga despite an indifferent start to the season, after winning eight of their last 10 league games.