One out, two in as Real Madrid prepare to play Valladolid

Kampala, Uganda | XINHUA |   Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane loses one player to injury, but recovers two more for his side’s home game against Valladolid on Wednesday night.

Midfielder Tony Kroos was confirmed to have torn his left gluteus maximum muscle on Monday and will miss Wednesday’s game and the following weekend’s trip to face Levante in Valencia.

Meanwhile left back Marcelo is also struggling with a back injury and Ferland Mendy will continue in defense.

However, the good news for Real Madrid is that Eden Hazard and Marco Asensio are both fit after missing the first two games of the season through injury. Both have trained with the rest of the first team squad at the start of the week and should be available to at least start on the bench on Wednesday.

Zidane is likely to bring either Isco or Luka Modric into his starting 11 to replace Kroos, although the doubt remains whether he will use a 4-4-2 with a midfield diamond formation that helped Madrid beat Betis at the weekend, or the 4-3-3 he fielded away to Real Sociedad in his side’s league opener.

One player who is likely to miss out however, is striker Luka Jovic. The Serb was given a chance to show what he can do at the weekend, but produced another disappointing display (although he did provoke a red card for Betis defender Emerson). Everything points to Jovic being loaned out before the end of the season with Borja Mayoral remaining as backup to Karim Benzema.

Other games played on Wednesday sees Atletico Madrid (and Luis Suarez fresh from two goals on his debut) travel to face recently promoted Huesca, while Villarreal entertain Alaves, who are without a win so far this season and Eibar are at home to Elche.

FC Barcelona travel to face Celta Vigo on Thursday.

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XINHUA