According to Marca, Barcelona's coach Pep Guardiola gave his consent to Busquets' participation at the Games and said: "I was already an Olympic athlete and I cannot keep him from that dream."

Guardiola was in the gold medal winning Spanish side at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics.

Busquets, who has described the prospect of going to London as a "dream", will not definitely go to the Olympics despite being given Guardiola's permission, as he has a high chance of being selected in the squad for the European Championships earlier in the summer.

They finish on July 1, just three weeks before the start of the Olympic tournament, and as Busquets was part of the World Cup winning team in 2010 and it would be a surprise if he was not picked for Euro 2012.

That may lead Milla to decide to pick another player instead, as Busquets will be 24 by the time of London 2012 and would have to take up one of three slots available for players over the age of 23.

Chelsea's Juan Mata, Athletic Bilbao's Javi Martínez and Atlético Madrid's Adrián have all been reportedly lined up to play in the Olympics this summer.

Another factor is that Adrian may play in the European Championships if Spain's injury crisis in attack does not clear up; they are likely to be without David Villa, while there are also doubts over Álvaro Negredo and Fernando Llorente.

That leaves them with just Valencia forward Roberto Soldado, Sevilla's Manu, who has barely played at international level, and Chelsea's Fernando Torres, whose form has deteriorated significantly in the last year.

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