Aurelien Tchouameni will not be at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday afternoon, and Real Madrid have decided they are entirely comfortable with that.
The Tchouameni Real Madrid return has no date attached to it, no target fixture and no negotiation — Jose Mourinho has drawn a line through the idea of rushing his France international back, and he is holding it.
Per Marca, Tchouameni trained away from the group again on Friday at Valdebebas and is all but ruled out of the LaLiga meeting with newly promoted Malaga (Sunday, 17:00 CEST). Mundo Deportivo report the same, with Endrick also working alone as he manages a minor muscular tendinitis.
Why the Tchouameni Real Madrid return has no date
Mourinho has already said the quiet part out loud. Speaking before the Real Sociedad game, the Portuguese coach was clear that there had been no relapse — and equally clear that Madrid were not going to gamble on the recovery.
“We have decided with him, the coaching staff and the medical department that he should come back at one hundred per cent,” Mourinho said, in quotes carried by Mundo Deportivo. “We are going to wait. If it is another week, it will be another week, but we are not going to push him.”
Tchouameni has been carrying a physical problem since the World Cup with France and has not been available at any point this season. Bernabeu Digital, via Madrid Universal, report the discomfort is in the groin area, that the 26-year-old is pushing to accelerate his comeback — and that the club have said no. His workload will be built up gradually, with no fixed return date.
Mourinho is protecting an asset, not managing a squad number
This is not a coach shrugging at an absentee — it is the opposite. Madrid are willing to lose Tchouameni for several more matches precisely because of how central he is to what Mourinho wants in midfield: the balance, the physical presence, the platform that lets everyone ahead of him play forward. It is the untouchable status he has been handed under Mourinho, put into practice.
The alternative is worse. A groin problem rushed and then relapsed does not cost three games in August; it costs a chunk of the autumn, exactly when LaLiga and the Champions League league phase start stacking on top of each other.
The upside: Madrid have not missed him
The luxury behind the patience is that the midfield has functioned perfectly well without him. Captain Federico Valverde and summer arrival Bernardo Silva have formed the holding partnership in his absence, and the double pivot Mourinho did not originally plan has been one of the early successes of the season.
Two games, two wins, six points from six and Los Blancos top of the table, with Jude Bellingham, Eduardo Camavinga and Arda Guler in reserve. There is no emergency forcing anyone’s hand.
The rest of the treatment room
Tchouameni is not alone in doing individual work. Rodrygo (knee), Ferland Mendy (thigh), Eder Militao (hamstring), Raul Asencio (muscular) and Thiago Pitarch (knee) all sat out Friday’s collective session, though Marca note that Pitarch, Mendy and Militao have at least been seen working with a ball at Valdebebas — one step closer to the group.
Endrick’s issue is far smaller. Mourinho called his absence preventative — stopping a minor problem becoming a real one — and again declined to name a date. Same philosophy, different player.
What it means for Sunday
Malaga arrive at the Bernabeu with a coach who has already promised not to sit deep, which should suit a Madrid side finding its rhythm. Our full preview of the Malaga game has the rest of the team news.
Tchouameni will watch it, and in all likelihood the one after that. But Mourinho is plainly thinking about April rather than the third weekend of the season — and for a midfielder whose value is measured in games played across a full campaign, that is the right kind of impatience to resist.
Fitness details in this piece are reported by Marca, Mundo Deportivo and Bernabeu Digital via Madrid Universal. Real Madrid have not issued a return date for Aurelien Tchouameni.
