After being given two days off following their victory over Barcelona, Real Madrid returned to training on Wednesday, but they did so without midfielder Isco.
The Spaniard started against Barcelona and managed 79 minutes of the game before being replaced by Luka Modri?, but there was no suggestion at the time that he had picked up a knock.
However, it appears as though he may not be at 100%, as ?Real reported on their ?official website that the midfielder trained alone on Wednesday while the rest of his teammates were outside on the grass.
?That certainly suggests he may not be ready for Sunday’s visit of Betis, which will come as a huge blow to manager Zinedine Zidane. ?Isco has been a core part of the squad in recent weeks, but the boss may now have to consider other options.
?Marco Asensio also stepped up his own recovery from injury by training alone outside, while winger ?Eden Hazard was obviously not involved after flying to Dallas for surgery on his foot injury, which will take place on Thursday.
While in Dallas, he met NBA star Luka Don?i?, who is maybe just a little bit taller than Hazard, and just wait until the 7’3 Boban Marjanovi? turns up.
Are they even the same species?
Anyway, back to Isco. If Zidane chooses to return to his favoured 4-3-3 formation, in which Isco has spent the majority of his time as a winger, then the Frenchman will look to the likes of ?Gareth Bale and Lucas Vázquez as replacements.
Hopefully, Zidane goes for Vázquez, because I can’t be bothered wading through a whole new batch of ‘OMG Zidane hates Bale’ headlines after the Welshman makes one bad pass.
Now that Real have moved to the top of ?La Liga, they will obviously be eager to continue adding points to try and move away from ?Barcelona, who are just one point behind in second.
That victory over Barcelona was just their second in their last six games in all competitions, so Zidane will hope that his side have turned a can move on from the troublesome form which has plagued them in recent weeks.
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