The clasico will not have the same flavor on Sunday. Indeed, the French international center-forward Karim Benzema will not be part of the squad of his club, Real Madrid. Injured in the left calf, he will miss the return match of the 29th day of La Liga against FC Barcelona, tomorrow at 9 p.m.
Other bad news: Benze will not be able to join the France team on Monday. “Karim (Benzema) and (Ferland) Mendy will not be able to play tomorrow (Sunday). They will stay here with us next week, ”said Ancelotti this Saturday afternoon at a pre-match press conference. “We never took any risks with him, not even in Paris. He still has some pain. It’s a small injury, but it prevents him from training and playing, “said “Carletto”.
His participation in the friendly matches of the France team against Côte d’Ivoire (March 25 in Marseille) and South Africa (March 29 in Lille) is more than compromised, according to the Italian technician. He had been summoned Thursday by Didier Deschamps, but this injury will prevent him from joining Clairefontaine, where he was to join his compatriots.
Encouraging medical examinations
After delivering an assist and scoring two goals on Monday in Mallorca for the 28th day of La Liga, thus becoming with 413 goals the top French scorer in history ahead of Thierry Henry (411), Karim Benzema left in the 87th minute visibly embarrassed by a pain in the left calf, leaving his teammates to finish the match at ten.
“Small pains like that happen. But his absence tomorrow (Sunday) does not worry me. We will have two weeks to prepare him for the end of the season, where he will be very important, as always. He always came back from little glitches like that, and he always made a difference. I think he got injured at the right times in the season, when his body needed to recover,” continued the Italian technician.
The medical examinations passed by the player on Friday seemed encouraging, but “KB9” trained alone indoors on Friday, and did not take part in collective training on Saturday morning, the day before the clasico.
New configuration for Real
To compensate for the absence of his favorite centre-forward, top scorer and best assistor in the Spanish league this season (22 goals and 11 assists in 25 La Liga matches), Ancelotti has several options.
He could launch Mariano or Luka Jovic, pure centre-forwards but who have had little playing time this season; associate Vinicius with Rodrygo and Marco Asensio, the attackers who have accompanied Benzema the most on the front of the merengue attack over the current exercise; even give a chance to Eden Hazard or Gareth Bale, forgotten on the bench for a long time. “Everything is decided, but I will not tell you anything”, slipped Ancelotti, this Saturday.
Benzema (34) has already missed three matches due to injury a few weeks ago: on January 23 against Elche, he came out in the 58th minute by touching the back of his left leg, and was replaced by the forward. Serbian center Luka Jovic. He returned just in time for the knockout round of the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes on February 15.