Real Madrid failed to start the defence of their LaLiga title on an encouraging note, after their lacklustre one-all draw at Mallorca.
Before that, Eduardo Cammavinga had suffered a scary looking knee injury in training ahead of their UEFA Super Cup win against Atalanta.
Los Blancos will now also be without another star midfielder as manager Carlo Ancelotti confirmed Jude Bellingham sustained an injury in training and will now reportedly be sidelined for several weeks.
“Following tests carried out today on our player Jude Bellingham by the Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with an injury to the plantaris muscle in his right leg. Pending evolution,” Real confirmed in a statement.
The 21-year-old will now miss Sunday’s LaLiga affair against Real Valladolid and England’s Nations League matches next month against Ireland and Finland.
Ancelotti, who usually holds his presser 24 hours before each game, decided to change the schedule so he could hold his final training session behind closed doors at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
The Italian insisted the unusual move had nothing to do with his side’s poor performance in their draw last weekend which left the usually cool, calm and collected Ancelotti furious at his players.
“It’s nothing special, I’m doing it just to test the pitch because it has changed compared to last year. I want the players to try the new pitch to see how they feel there. There is nothing superstitious or anything else behind it,” Ancelotti added.
He however acknowledged, that he needs a better performance in order to play with four attacking players in Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Bellingham up front and only two conventional midfielders.
“It was a pretty clear game to evaluate, we lacked balance, it’s not very complicated. There is a clear solution.
“With such an attacking team, the forwards have to work a bit harder. We have tried to fix it with a lot of work this week,” he added.
