An injury ravaged Real Madrid will take on high flying Celta Vigo in a top of the table clash on Saturday in Vigo’s Balaidos stadium.
Real Madrid have been plagued by injuries since the beginning of the season with several players spending extended spells on the sidelines.
Los Blancos have suffered 11 different injuries this season with James Rodriguez, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Sergio Ramos, Alvaro Arbeloa, Luka Modric, Dani Carvajal, Pepe and Mateo Kovacic being injured at some point in the season.
Modric Back; Kovacic, Ramos doubtful
Speaking to the media before his side’s clash with Celta, Rafa Benitez provided an injury update on his Real Madrid squad.
“We have a training session now, we will see how they have recovered,” said Benitez. “We have three or four players on the limit. Benzema did some of the work yesterday. It is a close thing.
“Kovacic and Ramos, it depends on the risk we want to take. Until we train we cannot know for sure how the players are.
“Modric is fine, he trained, he played, so we are more optimistic on him.”
Benitez went on to defend the work done by the club’s medical staff when he said, “Things can happen during games, at the top level. I’m very happy with the work being done by the medical department, there is a lot of collaboration and coordination and we have top level specialists. After 20 years in football, this medical team are among the best I have had.”
“Today I received a UEFA analysis about injuries, and it seems from that Madrid are doing pretty well,” Benitez added.
“We need to compare with other teams who play twice a week, in the Champions League, who have many players with international teams. We are the same as other teams in that situation.”
James Rodriguez, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Dani Carvajal and Pepe remain injured and will not feature against Celta at the weekend.
Ben tez: “Modric is well, we are optimistic.” #RMCity #RMLiga #HalaMadrid
a Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) October 23, 2015 .