Real Madrid are getting some key players back at the right time. Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham recently returned from missing multiple games to inject more superstar power into the team, while Eder Militao returned and scored over the weekend to give Los Blancos more options to a defense that often holds them back.
Alvaro Arbeloa still has to decide if Bellingham and Militao are going to start against Bayern Munich on Tuesday night at the Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, but what he will not get to decide is the fate of Harry Kane.
The Bayern Munich star and Ballon d'Or frontrunner had to miss the tough weekend matchup against southern German rivals Freiburg. Bayern were able to outlast Freiburg with a 3-2 comeback win on the road, doing what their European Clasico rivals could not do in Spain on the island vs. Mallorca.
Max Eberl provides Harry Kane injury news
But Kane was back in training for Bayern Munich, with sporting director Max Eberl confirming the good news. He said that while it is not guaranteed if Kane will be ready, the ball is in manager Vincent Kompany's court when it comes to the decision on the English superstar vs. Real Madrid.
Eberl said, “Harry Kane has done everything he can to be involved vs Real Madrid, he even participated in the final training session. Whether he starts tomorrow or not is Vinnie's decision. But he's there and he feels good.”
So if Harry Kane "feels good" and "has done everything" he needed to in order to play against Real Madrid, then if the choice rests with Vincent Kompany, it is impossible envisioning the Belgian manager holding out his best player - and probably the best player in the world right now - from a must win European rivalry matchup against Bayern's biggest threat against winning the Champions League at the venerable Santiago Bernabeu.
And perhaps the news that Kane practiced fully just before the big game may sway Alvaro Arbeloa into making his own big decision to play another game time decision on injury grounds. Eder Militao is not currently injured, but the plan for the star center back was to ease him back by not starting him in the first couple of games after the hamstring tear. But if Kane is out there, Arbeloa may need Militao as a counterweight against the clinical and intelligent No. 9.