After several weeks out of action, Carlo Ancelotti has several injured players back for Wednesday’s match against Mallorca at the Santiago Bernabéu. The Real Madrid coach is happy to talk about the returns of Arda Güler, Vinicius Jr and Dani Carvajal.
Real Madrid have struggled this season with a number of players out injured. Carlo Ancelotti lost Thibaut Courtois and Eder Militao to injury at the start of the season. Both have ruptured cruciate ligaments and will miss the rest of the season. As a result, the club from the Spanish capital have had to bring in Kepa Arrizabalaga, formerly Chelsea’s goalkeeper, to make up for the Belgian’s absence.
During the first half of the season, Carlo Ancelotti was constantly hampered by injuries. Vinicius Jr, Arda Güler, Dani Carvajal, Luka, Aurélien Tchouameni, Ferland Mendy, Édouardo Camavinga, Dani Ceballos, David Alaba, Jude Bellingham and Kepa Arrizabalaga have all passed through the club’s infirmary with various injuries.
But after the short Christmas break, Real Madrid took the opportunity to recover some of their injured players, and Carlo Ancelotti was proud to announce this to the press.
Arda Güler and Vinicius Jr back, Ancelotti reluctant to play them against Mallorca
Carlo Ancelotti appeared at a press conference on Tuesday, ahead of the La Liga clash with Mallorca. One of the subjects discussed was the return of Arda Güler, the Turkish crack who arrived last summer from Fenerbahçe, and Vinicius Jr.
Having recovered from their various injuries, the two Real Madrid stars are in the Transalpine coach’s squad for Wednesday’s match against Mallorca. Also in the squad is vice-captain Dani Carvajal, who is also making his comeback from injury.
Speaking to the press on Tuesday, Carlo Ancelotti made no secret of his satisfaction at the return of Turkish phenomenon Arda Guler. “The important thing for him is that he’s doing well, he’s back training with the team and little by little he’s getting back to his best. There’s no need to be in a hurry with him, he’s very young, he’s 18. He’ll have all the time in the world to play with us. He’s ready. If I can give him minutes tomorrow, I’ll give him minutes tomorrow. If not, it will be in another match,” said Carlo Anceloti, before commenting on the other players returning to the squad, namely Carvajal and Vinicius Jr.
“They’re available, they’re not comparable. Arda’s absence was much longer. Carvajal will play from the start, I haven’t decided with Vinicius yet, I need to speak to him and the doctors. Vinicius has shown in training that he is very, very good (…) We have to wait and see what happens this season. We’ve done well so far, and I think the team is changing little by little and will change in the future. We have a lot of resources that haven’t been able to express themselves yet, one of them being Arda Güler, who is finally back with us. We have to wait and see what happens in the second half of the season; the first half was full of problems and we did very well,” he added.
Unfortunately, that is not yet the case for Camavinga. The former Rennes man, who made his return to training a few weeks ago, is still recovering from his injury. He is not in the squad for tomorrow’s clash with Mallorca, but he will be back very soon,” reassured Carlo Ancelotti in a press conference on Tuesday. The Italian coach also refused to answer a question about Kylian Mbappé, who has once again been rumoured to be heading to Real Madrid, the club with whom he has just extended his contract until 2026.
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