Arbeloa's Madrid Squad Heading to Pamplona Short-Handed as Trio Remain Sidelined
Real Madrid return to training ahead of Saturday's La Liga trip to Osasuna, but Militão, Bellingham and Rodrygo are all set to miss out.
Real Madrid are heading to El Sadar on Saturday still without three of their key men — and there’s no late cavalry coming to save Álvaro Arbeloa’s blushes this week.
Back at Valdebebas, But No Good News
Madrid returned to training on Thursday after the day off they were given following Tuesday’s Champions League trip to Lisbon. The session passed without any fresh injury scares from the Benfica match — which is the good news. The bad news is that the existing walking wounded aren’t going anywhere fast.
The three players still on the treatment table ahead of the Osasuna fixture are:
- Éder Militão – still working through his recovery
- Jude Bellingham – same story, no timeline update
- Rodrygo – the one who might have made it, but hasn’t
Rodrygo’s Race Against Time Falls Short
Rodrygo was the one bloke in that trio who actually had a sniff of being fit in time. When the club announced his hamstring tendinosis on the 6th of February, the estimated lay-off was around ten days. Well, thirteen days have now passed and he’s still not in contention. Football, innit — these things never go quite to plan.
It’s a blow, because Madrid genuinely could’ve done with him at El Sadar. Osasuna away is never a stroll in the park, and Arbeloa will have to make do with what he’s got.
La Liga Leaders, But Can’t Afford to Slip
Here’s the thing though — Madrid go into this one as La Liga leaders. They nicked top spot last weekend after beating Real Sociedad, with Barcelona doing them a massive favour by losing to Girona. So there’s something to protect here, and the pressure’s well and truly on.
Dropping points at El Sadar while Barça are lurking would be a proper nightmare scenario.
Champions League Starters Get Tailored Session
For those who played against Benfica — a match Madrid won to put one foot in the Champions League last 16 — Thursday’s session was a more specific, tailored workout rather than the full-on training the rest of the squad did. The wider group went through a demanding possession-based session before moving into ball speed exercises and finishing off with some small-sided games.
All pretty standard stuff for a mid-week recovery day, but it tells you Arbeloa is managing his squad carefully with another fixture coming thick and fast.
Bottom Line
Madrid are in decent nick overall — top of the league, through to the knockouts in Europe — but they’re going to Pamplona light on options and without some proper quality. Arbeloa’s got a job on his hands.