Real Madrid's rotten luck with injuries in defence has continued, as David Alaba and Ferland Mendy have both been ruled out for the rest of the season.
The club have already been reeling from the news that Antonio Rudiger will miss the next two months after undergoing knee surgery, coinciding with the six-game ban handed down to him from the RFEF following his red card in the Copa del Rey final.
Rudiger would still have been available for the Club World Cup which gets underway in June, but the recent surgery now puts those chances in serious doubt.
The defeat to Barcelona on Saturday has not only proven devastating in that regard, but left-back Mendy has joined Rudiger in sustaining a serious setback that evening.
Alaba was an unused substitute through the 120 minutes in Seville, but he too will miss the rest of the campaign after sustaining a knee injury in recent days, joining Eduardo Camavinga, who missed the final, on the sidelines.
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Real's defence decimated following Barca defeat
With Rudiger and Camavinga already out for the season, more bad news has arrived, with a rupture in the right quad of Mendy set to sideline the French defender for the rest of the season.
Mendy was forced off inside just 10 minutes of the clash with Barca on Saturday, and there is no possibility of the 29-year-old returning in time for the Club World Cup, with all of the focus now centering on getting him ready for the 2025-26 campaign.
The same fate has beset Alaba, who despite not coming off the bench on Saturday, will also play no further part in their La Liga campaign this season.
Alaba has suffered a rupture within his meniscus, adding to the lengthy list of issues he has had with knee injuries over the past few years, but the Real Madrid medical staff are working hard to get him back in time for the Club World Cup.
After over a year on the sidelines, Alaba only returned fully from injury in February, but has started just seven games in that time, with the 32-year-old unable to win his place back in the starting XI, over the likes of Rudiger, Raul Asencio and Aurelien Tchouameni.
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How could Real's defence look against Barcelona?
Even though the Copa del Rey and Champions League may have fallen by the wayside, there is still some hope that Los Blancos could claim an unlikely La Liga title this season.
Ancelotti's side are four points adrift of Barca with five games remaining, but Hansi Flick and his players will have Champions League distractions for the next two weeks at least, before the two meet in El Clasico on May 11.
That will come at Montjuic, and even though Barca will put everything into their second leg with Inter Milan a few days earlier, the decimation of Real's defence could be telling.
Lucas Vazquez will also be suspended after he was sent off for dissent in the cup final, meaning Federico Valverde is almost certain to start at right-back.
Tchouameni and Asencio will be the only first-team players available to play at centre-back, with there being no chance of Jesus Vallejo featuring, while Fran Garcia will have to be drafted in to cover for Mendy at left-back.
Any more setbacks in the meantime would be hugely concerning, with Ancelotti already dealing with a skeleton squad in defensive areas for the final few games of the season.
Andrew Delaney
