Benzema injury ‘very light’, says Real coach Ancelotti

MADRID: Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said the injury Karim Benzema sustained against Valencia on Thursday is “very light”.

The French forward, 35, was taken off after 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,” Ancelotti 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 injured and had also suffered various problems in the first half of the season, missing nine Madrid games. Eder Militao was taken off injured with another apparent thigh injury against Valencia.

Ancelotti 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 Ancelotti.

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

The win over Valencia left the champions five points behind league leaders Barcelona after 19 games.

Barcaa welcome Sevilla to Camp Nou on Sunday high on confidence and leading La Liga with the milestone of 50 points at the halfway stage of the season.

Only two sides have reached 100 points in the Spanish league’s history, Real Madrid in the 201112 season and Barcelona the following year.

It is the fifth time Barca have earned that many points at this point of a campaign and four times they went on to lift the title.