Mendy, hard stop

Ferland Mendy does not quite see the light at the end of the tunnel. When everything pointed to the fact that he could start working at the same pace as his teammates, the French full-back suffered physical ailments that will prevent him from being at full capacity until after the next national team break in October.

With Mendy you want to go slowly, without haste. The injury he suffered at the end of last season, a tibial periostitis, brings him down the street of bitterness: he is already recovered (what's more, the player has already made a continuous career for Valdebebas (he also did it in this first preparatory session for the match against Valencia) and has even touched the ball and participated in exercises, rounds, with the rest of his teammates ). He was called up for the match against Celta last Sunday.or, even thinking of having a few minutes in the last leg of the meeting, but it was decided not to risk. The problem he has is that the area continues to hurt: there are days that those pains are more intense than others. For this reason, the club's medical services want to be extremely cautious.

The low period is estimated to be about three weeks, just when the competition comes to a halt due to the selection break. That is why this month of rest, tranquility and start over for the French player. He will miss the next matches: Valencia, Mallorca, Villarreal and Espanyol in the League, and Sheriff in between in the Champions League. He could return for the match against Athletic if all goes well. In addition, it must be remembered that Marcelo is still injured, so Ancelotti will have to choose between Nacho and Miguel Gutiérrez for this intense month that is coming to Madrid. Alaba will be Militao's partner in the center of the rear …

On the other hand, the squad began to prepare for the game against Valencia (Sunday, 9:00 pm). For this match, Carlo Ancelotti does not recover any of the injured players (Bale, Kroos, Ceballos, Mendy and Marcelo). Benzema trained inside the facilities, but will have no problem jumping onto the Mestalla field, where he has scored in the last three white visits to the Valencian field.