Real Madrid Squad to Face Sevilla as Eder Militao Makes Return

On Sunday evening, Real Madrid will host Sevilla on match day nine of the La Liga season, which will be their last league game at the Bernabeu until the weekend of the 22nd November, after the final international break of the season.

Earlier on today (Saturday, the 17th of October), the club officially announced the squad that has been called up for the game, which is as follows;

Thibaut Courtois; Andriy Lunin, Javi Navarro; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Denzel Dumfries, Eder Militao, Ibrahima Konate, Dean Huijsen, Antonio Rudiger, Alvaro Carreras, Marc Cucurella; Thiago Pitarch, Eduardo Camavinga, Aurelien Tchouameni, Federico Valverde, Bernardo Silva, Arda Guler, Jude Bellingham; Carlos Espi, Yan Diomande, Brahim Diaz, Kylian Mbappe and Endrick.

The most notable inclusion on that list is without any doubt Militao, who is involved in a game for the first time since all the way back on the 21st, at home to Deportivo Alaves in La Liga. There were reports in the week that he would be called up, and they have been proven correct.

Now, this does not mean that the Brazilian international will be in the match day squad, but it is certainly possible. The boss has called up 23 players, and you are allowed 23 in the MD squad too. There were 22 in the squad against Villarreal, so it is possible Militao is left out in theory, should something come up. We shall have to wait and see on that one.

In any case, it would be a huge moral boost for the 28-year old and everyone associated with the club if he was officially named amongst the substitutes. How likely a cameo is will surely depend on the game state— most likely if the team has a comfortable lead in the closing stages of the game. Otherwise, it feels unlikely that he will get minutes, but you never know. Let’s see. There is definitely no need to rush things. 

There is no room for compatriot Vinicius Jr, who is serving the first of his four game suspension after being sent off last time out. Two games for the red card, and a further two for his reaction afterwards. He can still play in the UEFA Champions League, and the games against RB Leipzig and AEK Athens in the interim.

His domestic return to action will be against Celta Vigo after the November international break, which as touched on earlier, is the next La Liga game at the Bernabeu after this weekend, more than one month later.