Eden Hazard's miserable spell at Real Madrid shows no sign of improving following Sunday's El Clasico win over Barcelona.
The Belgian international arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu in 2019 from Chelsea in a move costing Madrid at least £88million. He had become a fan favourite at the Blues and was regarded as one of the Premier League's best players.
He has failed to replicate that form in La Liga though and even struggles to get minutes on the pitch under Carlo Ancelotti. A series of injuries and unconvincing performances have seen him slip well down the pecking order since the Italian took charge at the start of last season.
That was highlighted on Sunday when Barca visited the Spanish capital for the first El Clasico of the season. Hazard started the game on the bench but was not one of the four substitutes that Ancelotti made during the 90 minutes.
Remarkably, it means that Hazard is still yet to appear in an El Clasico match-up, despite eight such games taking place during his three years in Madrid. For four of those games, Hazard has been on the injury list.
He was ruled out of the first game with a hairline crack in the foot, before missing the second with a broken leg. In the next campaign he missed both clashes in La Liga with a muscle problem.
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Since then though, he has been fit when Madrid have come up against their bitter rivals. But he has watched each game from the bench, with neither Ancelotti nor predecessor Zinedine Zidane bringing him on.
Hazard has recently made it clear that he has become frustrated with his lack of opportunities at the Spanish giants. His contract still has another two years to run and he admitted he is in a 'difficult time'.
"There have been difficult times because I want to play and I don't play. I feel good at Real Madrid, I just play less . And when I play, I play well. It's a delicate situation because I want to play more," he said.
"I know what I can do when I play. I want to scratch the maximum number of minutes and get to the World Cup in shape. I've always said the old Eden Hazard will come back when he plays. I just need to get back into the rhythm."
It also comes as the Belgian was booed off the pitch when he was hauled off in the Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk. With Hazard on the bench, Ancelotti masterminded a 3-1 win over Barca, with the Italian having few regrets about his selection.
"We had to play a complete match and we did it. It's true that the beginning was good, we got ahead of ourselves quite early and we controlled it well in the second half. I thought about last season, that I invented something," he said.
"In this game I tried not to invent and put the players in their place. I highlight Modric's game that was spectacular against his midfield. The five changes help a lot if you have players on the bench who deserve to be in the starting eleven but you can't get them all.
"The game was to put energy in the midfield with Valverde and wait and if things didn't go well we had Rodrygo and Camavinga. It's only three points that we took from a direct rival, from a strong team with a lot of resources, but the season is very long."
