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Real Madrid are sweating over the fitness of Antonio Rudiger for Sunday’s Madrid derby against Atletico Madrid, with the German bidding to overcome a thigh problem.
Rudiger had to be replaced at the interval of Thursday’s La Liga clash with Getafe, having picked up a thigh injury during a tussle with the home team’s on-loan Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood.
The centre-back was initially able to continue but was forced off at the interval, and according to AS, he is a major doubt for the clash with Atletico this weekend.
Aurelien Tchouameni moved into the middle of the defence against Getafe alongside Nacho, but the former picked up a yellow card in the latter stages of Thursday’s game, ruling him out of the Madrid derby through suspension.
Eder Militao and David Alaba are both on the sidelines with ACL injuries, meanwhile, meaning that Nacho could potentially be the club’s only senior centre-back available this weekend.
Should Rudiger fail to recover, Dani Carvajal or Ferland Mendy are likely to be pressed into action as a central defender in the all-Madrid clash.
“If we don’t have Rudiger we will put in another centre-back who will not be used to playing there, but will do it very well,” Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti said during his press conference on Thursday.
“I don’t know what happened, he took out the card and Tchouameni won’t be there for the game. Rddiger has had a blow and we’ll see what happens in the next few days.
“We have two days for him to recover. It’s a strong blow to the muscle. Rudiger is a warrior and it’s difficult for him not to get to the game because of a little annoyance.”
Rudiger’s issue is thought to be an impact injury rather than a muscular problem, but a decision on his involvement is unlikely to be made until Saturday.
“We are very emotional and the team is motivated. We fought, fought and we managed this game very well, which was not very simple,” Ancelotti added after the 2-0 success over Getafe.
“Getafe plays a football with many duels and aerial balls. We had a lot of presence on the field because we have very strong players.”
Joselu’s brace against Getafe secured Real Madrid’s 18th La Liga win of the campaign, with the capital outfit moving ahead of Girona to the top of the table.
Ancelotti’s side have two huge league games against Atletico and Girona before heading to Germany for the first leg of their last-16 Champions League clash with RB Leipzig on February 13.
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