League leaders Real Madrid have had an unbelievable amount of injuries this season, in what is incredibly concerning for all those involved with the Champions League and Club World Cup winners.
Injuries are indeed part of the game but the sheer volume of injuries for Los Blancos this season has been something else.
Real Madrid were dealt a double injury blow in the 2-1 win over Malaga at the weekend, with Marcelo and Luka Modric both forced off with muscle injuries. The duo is set to be out for around a month, continuing Real’s ridiculous injury troubles in the current campaign.
The wheels have come off slightly at the Bernabeu in recent times, with the wonderful 40-match unbeaten run coming to an end.
It’s fair to say that the amount of injuries to key players is a primary factor.
As per AS, before Marcelo and Modric were added to the injury list, Real have had a total of 33 injuries this season spread across 19 players. Only Kiko Casilla, Ruben Yanez, Mariano, Marcos Asensio and Nacho have been available for selection in every game this season.
In total, excluding Marcelo and Modric, the amount of days Real Madrid players have spent injured this term is 954 – that equates to roughly 29 days for every injury, which is absolutely staggering
Only Casemiro and Gareth Bale have been long-term injuries in which they have been unavailable for longer than 50 days, and impact injuries are to be expected, but the regularity of key players suffering muscle injuries is a major concern for Zinedine Zidane.
Real signed Antonio Pintus, a new fitness coach, in the summer and for the first half of the campaign, they were relatively untouched when it came to muscle injuries.
The former Lyon coach talked about his methods here:
But the fixture pile-up in the winter months, particularly following commitments in the Club World Cup, has taken its toll on the Real squad and they now currently have six important players out injured – with Marcelo and Modric adding to a list that contains Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez, Dani Carvajal and Pepe. Danilo and Fabio Coentrao also have fitness issues, according to Zidane.
It’s certainly not ideal going into a tricky period, especially with the Champions League last 16 clash with Napoli looming.