Real Madrid are set to battle Girona on Friday night in La Liga, with this match in the Spanish top flight yielding even bigger takeaways to a must win matchup the following week when Los Blancos take on Bayern Munich yet again in the Champions League quarterfinals.
The left back position will be under a microscope, as Alvaro Carreras struggled badly against the threat of young superstar Michael Olise, who had the entire Real Madrid team on skates but especially embarrassed Carreras, showing the young Spaniard from Benfica levels to this game.
So with an open competition at left back even before Carreras got owned by Olise, Real Madrid fans are hopeful that Ferland Mendy can come back from yet another injury to start and shut Olise down, just like he has shut down so many great right wingers in the Champions League in the past as a two time champion.
Ferland Mendy is ready for Girona
After learning that Mendy is in play to start against Bayern Munich on Wednesday, Real Madrid fans have received even better news from manager Alvaro Arbeloa. At the press conference before Friday night's game against La Liga side Girona, Arbeloa stated that Ferland Mendy is ready to get minutes against the Catalan side, via the Madrid Zone, "Ferland Mendy will make his return and get some minutes tomorrow."
That is huge news for Mendy, because even better than a newspaper report for Madridistas, it is direct confirmation from the Madrid manager himself that Mendy is healthy enough to get minutes against Girona as a tune up for Bayern Munich.
If Mendy plays well and, most importantly, remains injury free, which is unfortunately no guarantee, then all the stars are aligned for him to start against Bayern Munich and the sleeper Ballon d'Or candidate Michael Olise.
Fran Garcia could be in play to replace Alvaro Carreras, given he has played well recently including in the last Champions League round against Manchester CIty, but we all know that Mendy is a superior option defensively. Whereas Fran often leaves wanting against the top athletes at the position attacking wise, Mendy, for all his flaws on the ball that led to the eventual signing of Carreras, is the best there is in the entire business at shutting top wingers down defensively.
Let's see how many minutes Mendy gets in. It may be too soon for him to start, but a good 30-45 minutes of action spelling Fran Garcia, potentially, this weekend as the open competition continues could make sense.