We have seen two weeks of national tournaments or friendlies. Most of Real Madrid players are going for national duty to their respective countries. As it seems, Real Madrid gets the side effect of national breaks – injuries.
Some players returned with injuries
Luka Modric and Toni Kroos could not train with the first team of Real Madrid. Toni and Luka could perform exercises in the gym. Keep in mind that Casemiro returned to Madrid only yesterday and could not train on Thursday.
According to MARCA, Isco and James will be the only players under Zidane’s management for Saturday’s match. Real Madrid has a game against Mallorca on Saturday, but Los Blancos has to play with only two midfielders – Isco and James;
Valverde returned to Madrid only on Thursday, so he could not train with the leading team. Zidane needs Valverde and Casemiro for the mid-week match against Galatasaray. If Real Madrid can’t win the mid-week game in Turkey, the club won’t be able to qualify for the Champions League play-offs.
Date of El Clasico
Three days after the Champions League, Real Madrid will meet Barcelona in Catalonia. There are a massive protest and political movement in Catalonia. We can see streets full of protest, and La Liga officials don’t want Los Blancos players to visit Barcelona in the next few weeks. The match was scheduled for the 26th of October, but the Spanish Football Federation wants to postpone a game in November or December.
The decision will be made on Monday as officials could not agree on one date. Real Madrid representative says that the match at the Nou Camp won’t be a problem. Los Blancos officials want to play the game on 26th October because protest is no problem at all.
Luis Figo said that politics should be separated from football. Those two fields are very different, so Luis Figo is not against playing El Clasico in Catalonia on 26th October.