Real Madrid Confirms Huge Injury For Manchester City Champions League

On Sunday morning in Spain through an official statement, Real Madrid confirmed a huge injury blow to one of its players which will severely affect head coach Carlo Ancelotti’s plans for this month’s Champions League playoffs clash with Manchester City.

“Following tests carried out on our player Antonio Rudiger by the Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with an injury to the femoral biceps of his right leg,” the statement read.

It ended with the usual “pending evolution” phrase, meaning the club hasn’t specified a recovery time for the German international.

According to COPE journalist Arancha Rodriguez however, citing anonymous sources, Rudiger will be out for three weeks.

MARCA puts the timeframe down as two to three weeks, but whatever it ends up being, this is bad news for Ancelotti and Co.

Thanks to a second ACL rupture in two seasons, Eder Militao is out for the rest of the 2024/2025 campaign.

This meant that Rudiger was Madrid’s only senior center back, with Ancelotti having to rotate between pivot Aurelien Tchouameni and breakthrough rookie Raul Asencio to partner him.

Now in light of Rudiger’s injury, David Alaba is the only genuine center back with top level experience in Ancelotti’s side, though the Italian had planned for him to team up with Rudiger at the Etihad for the UCL playoffs’ first leg on February 11.

As things now stand, though, Rudiger is out of that match and possibly the return leg eight days later.

Even if he were fit, Ancelotti would be taking a big risk in rushing Rudiger straight back into the fold at the Bernabeu for such a high profile tie.

Losing Rudiger is also a blow for Madrid’s hopes of retaining its La Liga title. After losing both Rudiger and three points in the shock 1-0 defeat to Espanyol on Saturday night, Madrid must now take on crosstown and title race rivals Atletico Madrid next weekend while Alaba is still not 100% fit after recovering from a December 2023 ACL tear.

Ancelotti might have to opt for Asencio and Tchouameni together, which is far from ideal.

In the end, with the transfer window closing on Monday February 3, Madrid could make a last minute punt for a defensive reinforcement which it has until now been reluctant to do.