Real Madrid Manager Jose Mourinho Addresses Injury Situations

 As is always the case the day before a game, Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho addressed the media in his press conference.

When doing so, he spoke about various different topics regarding plenty of different situations, including the status of a number of players who have been out injured.

To begin with, he said that Brazilian defender Eder Militao is not a doubt for the clash with Villarreal because he simply will not play. There is no doubt involved. He said that he is still a few weeks away yet, but is doing better than originally expected.

Meanwhile, he said that Ferland Mendy trained with the group for the first time since his most recent injury. The Frenchman has not featured in a competitive game since a 2-0 win over Espanyol all the way back on the third of May.

Elsewhere, Mourinho said that Federico Valverde is a doubt for the game. The Uruguayan midfielder played the 90 minutes against Atletico Madrid last time out, but was on the end of a nasty challenge during the game, so did not go on international duty with the Uruguay national team.

That said, there is a contradictory statement from the gaffer in regards to that, where he said: “This is the first time in 10 years where Real Madrid haven't picked up any new injury in October.

All injured players were players who got injured last season.” Now technically you could say the injury picked up was in September, not October, but the last line of “all injured players were players who got injured last season” suggests Valverde is not injured.

Ah well, let’s see. It’s also good news regarding Kylian Mbappe, marrying up reports from this week that he trained fully and without any issues. So, barring anything unusual, we can assume he is available to start the game with Villarreal, should the boss wish to start him. 

Some have suggested Carlos Espi should start this one instead, but truth be told, it feels very unlikely that Mourinho would do that just yet. It feels more likely when we really get into the thick of two games a week with the UEFA Champions League, Copa del Rey and so on and so forth. Let's wait and see. 

Possible Real Madrid starting XI to take on Villarreal at the Bernabeu this weekend; Courtois; Dumfries, Konate, Rudiger, Carreras; Silva, Tchouameni; Guler, Bellingham, Vinicius; Mbappe.