Real Madrid: Expect to see neither Martin Odegaard nor Eden Hazard on Sunday
By Ben Sundock
Real Madrid will play its first and only friendly on Tuesday, but will not have Eden Hazard or Martin Odegaard. The two are likely to miss the league opener this weekend.
The title defence begins anew this Sunday. With a shortened and odd “offseason” now over, Real Madrid, led by manager Zinedine Zidane, will look for a repeat of 2019/2020 in what should be a slightly more normal domestic and continental season.
Los Blancos will start the 38 match La Liga campaign with two road matches against tough opponents. They will travel north to San Sebastian to face Real Sociedad on Sunday night and then will have to travel south to Seville to face Real Betis on September 27.
Even though the club has not played a competitive fixture since the first week of August, they still have a rather lengthy and worrisome injury list heading into the opener.
The two biggest concerns are Martin Odegaard and Eden Hazard. Odegaard seemed to be healthy and ready to face the team he was on loan with a year ago as he trained with the first-team over the last several weeks.
However come Monday, the Norwegian international was noticeably absent from the training pitch at the Ciudad de Real Madrid. The news then came that Zidane would not be including Odegaard for the friendly Tuesday with Getafe at the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano.
Just two months ago, Odegaard was diagnosed with patellar tendinopathy which is a chronic problem that does not have a 100 percent effective treatment. There could be flair ups of the injury or Zidane could be limiting his match load early to ensure he stays fit enough to play come the second half of the season.
Hazard, on the other hand, continues to work in the gym away from the rest of the team as he continues to rehab that ankle that caused so many problems in his first season with Real Madrid.
He is joined by outcast forward Gareth Bale who has just recently returned from international duty with Wales and seems to have a problem with his knee. As per Bale’s contract with the club, they are not at liberty to disclose the specifics of an injury.
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Real Madrid will not have Lucas Vazquez, Luka Jovic, Marco Asensio, or Sergio Reguilon for the friendly tomorrow which will offer several academy players an opportunity to impress the manager.
Here is the squad that will face Getafe:
Goalkeepers: Thibaut Courtois, Andriy Lunin, Diego Altube.
Defenders: Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, Sergio Ramos, Ferland Mendy, Nacho Fernandez, Raphael Varane, Marcelo, Alvaro Odriozola, Miguel Gutierrez, Javi Hernandez.
Midfielders: Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Casemiro, Fede Valverde, Marvin Park, Antonio Blanco, Sergio Arribas, Carlos Dotor.
Forwards: Borja Mayoral, Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo Goes, Juan Latasa.