Asencio given open-ended rest after collision scare as Madrid's defensive options run thin
Raúl Asencio escapes serious injury after a frightening collision with Camavinga, but Real Madrid's defensive depth is looking worryingly stretched.
Real Madrid breathed a collective sigh of relief after Raúl Asencio was discharged from hospital following a genuinely alarming collision during the Benfica match — but the defender now faces an indefinite spell on the sidelines, and the club’s centre-back options are looking proper threadbare.
What actually happened
Asencio and Eduardo Camavinga clashed heads in what looked, in the moment, like a seriously nasty incident. The young centre-back was left flat out on the pitch while Madrid’s medical staff worked on him for several minutes before fitting him with a neck brace and stretching him off. He was taken straight to hospital as per the standard protocol for this kind of impact.
The club moved quickly to calm the panic, describing the injury in pretty vivid terms — essentially likening it to a whiplash-style jolt you’d get from a minor car shunt, where the neck snaps back on impact. Uncomfortable, yes. Career-threatening, no.
The all-clear — with caveats
Asencio spent several hours under observation, with Madrid’s head of medical services Niko Mihic heading to the hospital to check on him personally. Just after 1am, he left the hospital in the passenger seat of his own car — his dad, who’d made the trip to Madrid to watch the game, drove him home. A lovely detail, that.
Tests ruled out any serious damage, which is the main thing. He’s back home and resting. The club aren’t putting any kind of timeline on his return, and there’s absolutely no intention of rushing him back. He’ll be assessed day by day.
Asencio himself took to social media to reassure everyone, saying it had been nothing more than a scare and urging the fans on for the next round.
The bigger headache: Madrid’s defensive crisis
Here’s where it gets a bit hairy for whoever’s in the dugout for the Castilla setup. Right now, the available centre-backs are:
- Antonio Rüdiger — fit and available
- David Alaba — fit and available
- That’s it
Huijsen missed the Benfica game with a right soleus overload and is a doubt for the upcoming Getafe fixture, though there’s at least some hope he could be back in time. Asencio, meanwhile, has no return date whatsoever.
For a club with Real Madrid’s ambitions, going into a league match with two fit senior centre-backs and a couple of maybes is not exactly ideal. Getafe aren’t exactly known for making life easy either — they’ll fancy their chances against a makeshift backline.
The bottom line
The good news is that Asencio avoided anything serious, and that genuinely is the priority here. The lad’s young, he’s been one of Madrid’s better performers this season, and the last thing anyone wanted was a long-term injury from a freak collision.
But the short-term defensive picture is a proper concern. Madrid need Huijsen fit, need Asencio to recover quickly, and need a bit of luck on the injury front over the next few weeks. Right now, they’re running on fumes at the back.