Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that influential Real Madrid trio Karim Benzema, Rodrygo and David Alaba are major doubts for next week's Champions League semi-final second-leg against Manchester City.
City and Madrid shared a high-quality 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu this week ahead of next week's deciding second leg, but were given a blow when Benzema, Rodrygo and Alaba did not train on Saturday having picked up knocks against City.
And boss Ancelotti confirmed that none of the trio will be risked on Saturday against Getafe in La Liga, although he could provide no guarantees of their availability to face City at the Etihad for Wednesday's second leg.
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“We are quite good. We have some doubts with some footballers who received knocks in Tuesday’s game. Benzema, Alaba and Rodrygo have still not recovered," said Ancelotti.
"[Dani] Ceballos and [Ferland] Mendy return, they can play tomorrow. The team is good and motivated to win tomorrow. The players who have doubts in tomorrow’s game are not going to play… and the mission is to recover them for that game [at City]. The physical ‘issue’ does not exist.”
Ancelotti will also welcome back Eder Militao for the second leg, and confirmed that he has no plans to completely rest any other players, including goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and first-leg goalscorer Vinicius Jr.
He said: “Courtois is going to play tomorrow… and Vini too, I don’t know if from the beginning but he’s going to play tomorrow. Of course I have to take everything into account, the players that won’t play and not take risks. Tomorrow’s game demands a lot from us against a team that is struggling not to get relegated. We need freshness and energy. But we are going to have a competitive team.”
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