Zinedine Zidane has no fresh injury concerns to deal with as Real Madrid visit Estadi Montilivi to take on Girona on Sunday.
Politics and football are set to meddle on Sunday when Real Madrid take the trip to Estadi Montilivi to face Catalonia-based Girona, in what is expected to be a chaotic game. Zinedine Zidane, though, is not bothered by any fresh fitness troubles in his squad, although he does have some key players missing.
Keylor Navas has missed the cut for the third game running as he continues to recover from a groin injury, while Dani Carvajal has shrugged off heart problems, and is now on the road to recovery, having resumed light training on his own.
Mateo Kovacic is the furthest from regaining fitness, and the Croat is likely to remain on the sidelines for another month. But, Gareth Bale has resumed training, although he still hasn’t joined the first-teams squad and is facing a race against time to be fit for the midweek Champions League game against former side Tottenham.
? Here’s Zidane’s 18-man squad for the trip to @GironaFC! #RMMovistar #RMLiga pic.twitter.com/Usey8GCdh7
— Real Madrid C.F.?? (@realmadriden) October 28, 2017
Zinedine Zidane, meanwhile, chose to speak on the situations of Navas and Bale, in particular, in his pre-match press conference, claiming the duo are in contention to feature on Wednesday, depending on their progress in training.
“They’re doing better and we’ll take a look at them next week. They still haven’t trained with the group and we’ll see where we’re at next week. I can’t say whether they’ll be involved in London, because it all depends on their progress.
“We’ll make a decision on Monday. [Gareth] Bale is in good spirits. He’s feeling better now that he’s training out on the pitches, although he’s not yet rejoined the team. We’ll see how things go next week.”
Meanwhile, Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo are set to return to the starting eleven on Sunday, after the duo were rested and given time off from training ahead of the Copa del Rey fixture against Fuenlabrada.
Girona boss Pablo Machin, on the other hand, has just three first-team players unavailable ahead of Sunday’s game, with Pedro Alcala (malleolar injury), Marc Muniesa (muscular problems) and Eloi Amagat (ankle) on the treatment table.
