Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova has suffered a relapse of cancer a year after surgeons removed a tumour from his salivary gland, the club said yesterday, in a potentially bitter blow for the Spanish club.

Messages of support poured in for the 44-year-old, whose team is flying nine points high at the top of La Liga after the club confirmed media reports in Spanish sports dailies.

The Catalan giants said in an initial statement that a scheduled news conference for lunchtime yesterday with Barca president Sandro Rossell had been cancelled, as had a planned Christmas meal with the media.

They then added that Vilanova would have surgery today and thereafter also undergo “around six weeks of radiotherapy and chemotherapy,” according to a statement on the club’s website.

Spanish newspaper El Economista citing sources close to the club said Vilanova’s assistant Jordi Roura would take over his duties in his absence.

The development comes at a dramatic time for Barcelona, one of the world’s most successful football teams.

They have made their best ever start to the league season, while their fierce rivals Real Madrid are suffering a malaise.

Jose Mourinho’s Real are 13 points adrift in third place and rattled by reports of internal squabbles.

Vilanova has been Barca manager since the departure of his long-time comrade-in-arms Pep Guardiola in April this year.

He underwent an operation to remove a tumour on his parotid gland – the largest of the salivary glands – on November 22, 2011 and was back at work as Guardiola’s deputy just 15 days later.

Vilanova has led Barcelona to their most successful start to a season in La Liga’s history, with 15 wins and one draw in 16 matches so far.

Reports of Vilanova’s relapse emerged on the same day that a Catalan radio station and Mundo Deportivo newspaper said doctors had given the all-clear for Barcelona defender Eric Abidal to play again after undergoing a liver transplant on April 10.

The operation was conducted more than a year after a tumour was removed from his liver.