The start of the 2024-25 season has not been one to remember for Real Madrid. The Merengues have dropped four points in their first four games, with draws against Mallorca and Las Palmas, and are already four points behind the league leaders, Barcelona.
Meanwhile, they have also been struck by an injury crisis after seeing three of their players, Ferland Mendy, Aurelien Tchouameni, and Dani Ceballos, getting injured in quick succession. These three players now join David Alaba, Eduardo Camavinga, Jude Bellingham, and Jesus Vallejo in the infirmary.
In this situation, Carlo Ancelotti is particularly short on defenders and midfielders, with only 15 first-team players available. Any more injuries will further deepen the crisis, as Los Blancos also have Champions League matches coming up after the current international break.
Previously, Ancelotti would have found the solution to such problems in La Fabrica. Only in the last season, the Italian tactician called up 14 kids from the youth academy to complete his squad at different points of the season, including Lucas Cañizares, Fran González, Nico Paz, Piñeiro, Gonzalo, Tobias, Carrillo, Edgar, Theo, Mario de Luis, Mario Martín, Asencio, Álvaro and Jacobo.
However, as MARCA has reported, it will be complicated for Ancelotti to go down this path this time, as Raul’s Castilla is suffering from an even bigger crisis. He had up to nine players unavailable for the last match against Ibiza.
There are several midfielders among this list of injured players, including Chema, Manuel Angel, Edgar, Mesonero, and Cesar Palacios. The latter two are out with ACL tears. Furthermore, options like Nico Paz and Mario Martin, who would have been perfect for Ancelotti at such a point, are also no longer available as they left the team at the end of the last summer transfer window.
Thus, the Real Madrid head coach will have his fingers crossed that there are no more injuries to his players in the current international break, and hopefully, some of the injured players can make quick recoveries to return to availability as soon as possible.
