At a glance
- Thibaut Courtois continues his recovery at Valdebebas, hoping to be for Real Madrid’s Clasico clash with FC Barcelona.
- Los Blancos trail the Catalans by 11 points at the La Liga summit.
- Courtois trained with the group in a Monday session.
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois joined the rest of the group in a Monday training session at Valdebebas.
As revealed by the club, the Belgian was diagnosed with a muscular injury in the rectus femoris of his right quadriceps on March 19th.
The knock was picked up against Manchester City in the Champions League last 16. As a consequence, Courtois missed both legs of the quarterfinal defeat to Bayern Munich. Andriy Lunin then stepped in to replace him, as seen in 2023/2024.
After completing a training session with his teammates, though, Courtois looks set to be Madrid’s starting goalkeeper in the must win May 10th meeting with FC Barcelona in El Clasico.
By beating Espanyol 2-0 on Sunday via a Vinicius Jr. double, Los Blancos kept faint hopes of stopping the Catalans from winning the title alive.
Barca lead by 11 points at the top. Yet winning in the Clasico can delay their celebration party, or perhaps be the start of a late collapse.
Real Madrid wait for news on other players
Fighting for his job, Alvaro Arbeloa knows that he is already going to be without Dani Carvajal, Arda Güler, Eder Militão and Rodrygo in the Clasico.
At the moment, it’s touch and go on Kylian Mbappe. The Frenchman has angered the club, his teammates and fans during recovery from a hamstring overload. Yet he’s already returned to Madrid after his controversial decision to travel to Paris rather than Espanyol, and is now working on his recovery.
According to MARCA, however, it won’t be until Wednesday that he finds out whether he gets the green light for a Barca outfit he scored a hat trick against in Montjuic last May.
As for Ferland Mendy, we’re still awaiting tests to find out the extent of a muscle injury. This saw him having to leave the pitch in the opening minutes against Espanyol. If he’s ruled out, it’d be his fifth injury this season. In his place in the Clasico, Fran Garcia might be more likely to start over Alvaro Carreras at left back.
