Thibaut Courtois and Éder Militao underwent successful surgery this Thursday after both rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament of their left knee last week, during training at the Valdebebas Sports City in the case of the goalkeeper and during the match that measured the Real Madrid with Athletic in San Mamés on Saturday, corresponding to the first day of LaLiga EA Sports, in the central one. In the next few days they will begin a long recovery process that will keep them out for almost the entire 2023-2024 season.
Doctor Manuel Leyes, a specialist in this type of intervention, has been in charge of operating both the Real Madrid guard and defender under the supervision of the Chamartín club’s medical services. The estimated period of loss for this type of mishap is around nine months, so, if these deadlines are met, the Belgian international and the ‘Canarinha’ player would not return to the pitch until May 2024, when the campaign is coming to an end.
Courtois suffered one of the most feared injuries by any footballer while participating in the training session carried out by Real Madrid last Thursday under the command of Carlo Ancelotti. The goalkeeper fell ill and had to be removed on a stretcher from the training fields of the Ciudad Deportiva de Valdebebas while he was breaking down in tears, which already presaged the high scope of the ailment, confirmed by the diagnostic imaging tests at which which he submitted soon after.
Courtois’s injury left his teammates and the club in shock, which quickly began to comb the market in search of a replacement. The entity chaired by Florentino Pérez weighed up the names of the Moroccan Bono and the Spanish David De Gea, but finally the one chosen was Kepa Arrizabalaga. The Ondárroa goalkeeper was one step away from Bayern Munich, but, after learning of Real Madrid’s interest, he paralyzed his landing at the Allianz Arena and ended up being presented this Tuesday as the new goalkeeper for the Whites.
While Courtois covers the stages of his laborious recovery process, Kepa will be in charge of guarding Real Madrid’s goal, a club to which he has arrived on loan for a season from Chelsea and without a purchase option. I hope I can stay for more than a year. I come here on loan but we will have time to talk and hopefully with my performance I can make that happen”, the Biscayan said, however, during his presentation as a new Real Madrid player. An act in which he was flanked by Florentino Pérez and in which the Spanish international wished Courtois a “speedy recovery”.
Opportunity for the quarry
For his part, Militao set off all the alarms when he fell to the ground after making a bad gesture with his left knee in a dispute over the ball with Oihan Sancet at the start of the second half of the clash between Real Madrid and Athletic in San Moms. The Brazilian quickly grabbed his injured knee and burst into tears that made it clear that he suffered a major injury. He left the field on his own foot, although leaning on the health workers who came to help him and, as in the case of Courtois, the tests confirmed all the omens.
Unlike what happened with Courtois, Real Madrid does not plan to go to the market to reinforce itself in the defensive field, which will leave Carlo Ancelotti with only three central defenders from the first team: David Alaba, Antonio Rüdiger and Nacho Fernández. The Italian could pull from a youth squad like the Spanish-Moroccan Marvel, who already traveled with Real Madrid for the last Club World Cup, although he did not participate in that event. Ancelotti has had the opportunity to see a 20-year-old center-back in various training sessions, among whose qualities stands out physical power and work capacity. During the last season, he participated in 30 games for Castilla under Raúl González Blanco.
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