Benzema injury ‘very light’, says coach Ancelotti

Madrid:realmadridcoachcarloancelotisaidthe injury Karim Benzema sustained against Valencia on Thursday is “very light”.

The French forward, 35, was taken off ater 60 minutes of Madrid’s 2-0 win at the Santiago Bernabeu, holding the back of his thigh.

“Karim’s seems something very light, but this is what happens when you play every three days and there is no time to recover,” Anceloti told DAZN.

The coach had complained about the intense football calendar ahead of the game, with Madrid heading to Morocco next week to play in the Club World Cup, while still in the Champions League and Copa del Rey.

Benzema missed France’s World Cup campaign injuredandhadalsosufferedvariousproblemsinthe first half of the season, missing nine Madrid games.

Eder Militao was taken off injured with another apparent thigh injury against Valencia.

Anceloti was more pessimistic about the Brazilian defender’s hopes of playing in the club’s next league game against Real Mallorca.

“Militao I don’t think will recover, not for Sunday,” said Anceloti.

Real Madrid currently have defenders Ferland Mendy, David Alaba and Lucas Vazquez out injured, while Aurelien Tchouameni returned as a subsitute against Valencia ater a calf problem.

Madrid reduced Barcelona’s La Liga lead to five points with a 2-0 win, thanks to spectacular goals from Marco Asensio and Vinicius Junior.

The duo struck in a three-minute second half salvo which stunned the visitors at the Santiago Bernabeu, and Valencia were later reduced to 10 men when Gabriel Paulista took a wild hack at Vinicius. Madrid dominated throughout but an otherwise good night was tainted when captain Karim Benzema went off injured in the second half with an apparent thigh problem, and Eder Militao was also replaced for a similar reason.

The game will likely be remembered for Gabriel’s red card tackle on Vinicius, who neted his 50th goal for Madrid on his 200th appearance at 22 years old.