Real Madrid midfield maestro Aurelien Tchouameni played through the pain last weekend, suffering a stress fracture in his foot during El Clasico. He stayed on because his team was losing, and he knew they needed his help, his agent Jimmy Kebe explained.
And the injury wasn’t due to the collision with Barcelona midfielder Gavi, as many people had suspected.
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“He felt something [in the first half] but it wasn’t a big deal and then, during the game, it got worse,” Kebe revealed in The Athletic.
“It wasn’t because of Gavi. He didn’t say anything [at half-time] because, as the team was losing, he wanted to win. But he didn’t know. When you are playing you don’t feel it, it’s when you stop and take off your shoes.”
He now joins Eder Militão and Thibaut Courtois on the long-term injury absentee list. The Frenchman will be out at least six to eight weeks, so his timeline pretty much rules him out for the rest of the calendar year.
“After the tests carried out on Aurélien Tchouameni by the Real Madrid Medical Services, the player has been diagnosed with an incomplete stress fracture in the second metatarsal of the left foot. His progress is to be monitored”, reads the club statement.
So we may not see him again until early 2024. Elsewhere, in assessing the team fitness situation ahead of Sunday’s league clash vs Rayo Vallecano, Ferland Mendy was not able to finish the Clasico having suffered an unspecified, minor injury. The problem was severe enough to also keep him out of Madrid’s midweek training session.
However, he is expected to be fully fit and available on the weekend, as is wonderkid Arda Guler, who has battled a host of injury setbacks this season.
This match could finally mark the Madrid debut of the Turkish teenage prodigy.
Flipping over to the other side, Randy Nteka returned to the bench, after injury recovery, last weekend, so now Rayo Vallecano has a fully fit squad.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram
