La Liga giants Real Madrid have been rocked with a huge injury blow ahead of Sunday’s trip to the Vicente Calderon Stadium, with star Colombian attacker James Rodriguez being ruled out of the all-important tie.
It was merely two days ago when reports emerged that the former Monaco star was ahead of his recovery and thus would be fit for the Atletico Madrid game, but that bubble appears to have burst.
The 24-year-old has been suffering from a thigh injury which has prevented him from featuring for Los Blancos since their 5-0 win over Real Betis just over a month ago, on the 29th of August.
Belief was that Rodriguez was ahead of schedule in the road to recovery, but according to Caracol Radio (per AS), the player suffered a relapse from his muscular injury which will thus rule him out of the weekend tie.
In addition, after being named in Jose Pekerman’s World Cup qualifiers squad for the upcoming international breaks, Los Cafeteros will be without their main man for their clashes Peru and Uruguay.
Rodriguez, who picked up his injury whilst on international duty on September 8, was visited by Ulloa, the Colombia national team doctor, who after examining the player confirmed that it will be a few more weeks before his return to action.
This will come as a huge disappointment to Rafael Benitez, who would have hoped to have James’ flare for the Madrid derby. Luckily for Les Merengues, however, they will be welcoming Sergio Ramos and Gareth Bale to their squad in time for Sunday’s game.
