Real Madrid’s resounding victory against Villarreal this Sunday (4-1) came at a high cost for Carlo Ancelotti’s team. David Alaba injured his left knee in a dispute over a ball with Gerard Moreno and had to leave the field of play in the 34th minute to make way for Nacho. The centre-back’s desolation when leaving the pitch led to fears that he was suffering a major injury and, once the match was over, Real Madrid confirmed the worst omens. The Austrian has torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, so he will miss the remainder of the season.
Alaba’s injury overshadowed Real Madrid’s victory, with which the whites are sleeping leaders waiting for what Girona does this Monday against Alavés, they distance Barça by seven points and Atlético by eight, although the red and whites have a game less. The Central European fell to the ground while fighting for a ball with Gerard Moreno and his gestures of pain when touching his knee set off all the alarms.
Once the medical report is known, Real Madrid knows that it will no longer be able to count on Alaba for the remainder of the campaign. The former Bayern Munich player will be out for between seven and nine months after suffering the same injury that has kept his teammate Éder Militao out of action since the first day of the League.
As it is, Ancelotti has been left without the two centre-backs who started as theoretical starters when the campaign raised the curtain back in August. First Militao was injured and now it is Alaba who will have to face a long recovery process. It doesn’t stop there, since Thibaut Courtois also broke his cruciate just before the start of the season, which led the club to bring in Kepa.
Options
The plague of injuries is hitting Real Madrid with singular harshness, which has had up to nine players in the infirmary simultaneously and right now has seven in the dry dock, although Carvajal and Arda Güler could soon return to the field of game.
The question that now arises for Real Madrid is whether or not it should go to the market to counteract the injury to Alaba, a central defender of undoubted hierarchy. Although he was not going through his best moment of form, the Austrian was still one of Ancelotti’s praetorians, who has included him in 17 of the 23 official matches that Real Madrid has played so far this season, all of them as headline.
The transalpine player stated in a press conference that his short-term idea is to reconvert Tchouaméni to the central position, at least for next Thursday’s duel against Alavés in Mendizorroza. But the most logical thing is for the club to comb the market in search of a guaranteed replacement since Ancelotti only has two healthy centre-backs: Rüdiger and Nacho. “After Christmas, we’ll see what we can do,” Carletto said.
It is worth remembering that Real Madrid loaned Rafa Marín to Alavés last summer. The Andalusian was the most promising center back in La Fábrica and the Chamartín club is considering recovering him next summer, but Alaba’s injury forces him to move immediately. Other options appeared in Castilla such as Marvel or Carrillo, but the first of them is currently injured. Furthermore, it seems difficult for the Whites to be able to place on any of their ‘blackbirds’ the responsibility that comes with wearing the first team shirt in the long term and in highly demanding clashes. Ancelotti does not win this season for scares.
2023-12-17 23:37:18
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