Kylian Mbappé’s suspicious gesture of touching his left leg when he was substituted against Alavés resulted in a medical report on Wednesday that, according to Real Madrid’s calculations, will keep him out for around three weeks. For now, the derby this Sunday with Atlético, the first big league match for the Whites, will not be attended by the Frenchman. The club reported that the forward suffers from “an injury to the femoral biceps.”
Immediately after the match against the Vitorian team, Carlo Ancelotti said that the player himself had asked to be substituted in the 80th minute, although the coach downplayed the discomfort at that time. “He is fine, a little tired and he asked me to change to avoid problems,” said the Italian. An optimism that was not fulfilled.
In addition to the match at the Metropolitano (21.00) against Atlético, Mbappé will miss the second day of the Champions League in Lille (next Wednesday), the match against Villarreal at the Bernabéu on Saturday 5 October, and the two matches of the French national team against Israel and Belgium. After the break, the competition returns for Madrid on Saturday 19 October in Vigo, where he would have a chance of being available if the recovery times calculated in Valdebebas are met. Within the setback of the injury for Madrid, in this case the interruptus international works in its favour because it reduces the number of matches its star is absent.
Mbappé is the second outfield player in the Real Madrid squad with the most minutes played this season (783), behind Fede Valverde (789). Only goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (810) is ahead of them. To speed up his adaptation to the team’s rhythm after joining the dressing room a few days before the start of the competition (he was coming off the break for the European Championship), the Frenchman started from the first official match (the European Super Cup with Atalanta) and has been in the other eight matches of the club season, of which he has completed five. In addition, with his national team he accumulated two more participations during the previous break in September: a full match against Italy and 25 minutes against Belgium.
The incident comes at a time when his form for Madrid is improving. Against Alavés, he scored the 2-0 with a good finish. He has now scored seven goals from his position as centre forward, three of which have been from the penalty spot. Ancelotti’s line-up against Alavés had all the air of being used and accumulating minutes of the starting eleven (with the exception of Lucas Vázquez for Carvajal) before visiting Atlético, but now his absence raises doubts about the Italian’s starting eleven: should he keep the pure 4-3-3 or switch to a 4-4-2. It also remains to be seen whether Carletto can recover the right-back position, who was not in the match against Alavés due to a knock to his right leg suffered against Espanyol.
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