Marcos Llorente out for up to three weeks with muscle tear
Real Madrid have confirmed that Marcos Llorente has suffered a muscle injury in training that could potentially see him miss the club's next six games.
Real Madrid’s Marcos Llorente has picked up a muscular injury during a training session on December 31 and will be out for two to three weeks, the club has confirmed.
While the midfielder carried on with the training session without a problem after the injury occurred, tests carried out on Tuesday revealed a muscle tear in his left adductor.
“Following the tests carried out today on our player Marcos Llorente by the Real Madrid medical team, he has been diagnosed with a grade 2 injury to his left adductor. His recovery will continue to be assessed,” stated the medical report published on the club’s website this Tuesday.
The injury means that Llorente could potentially be unavailable for Los Blancos’ next six games against Villarreal (LaLiga), Real Sociedad (LaLiga), Leganés (Copa del Rey first leg), Betis (LaLiga), Leganés (Copa del Rey second leg) and Sevilla (LaLiga).
Llorente out as Casemiro readies to return
The news comes as a blow for in-form Llorente, who has become a regular starter in recent weeks in the absence of the injured Casemiro. Coincidentally, as Llorente bows out, the Brazilian is now ready to return to the fold once again, and will come back in to make up a midfield trio completed by Luka Modric and Toni Kroos.
Academy graduate Llorente had all but agreed a January loan switch to Alavés, but that all changed after Madrid’s visit to Rome at the end of November. Following an impressive performance in that game, Santiago Solari has opted for Llorente as the starting midfielder in Casemiro’s position, in which he had previously tried out Dani Ceballos.
Since the Roma game, Llorente has played eight consecutive games, clocking up 595 minutes. Before the visit to the Italian capital, the Spaniard had played a total of just 101 minutes – 90 of which came in the first leg of the Copa del Rey tie against Melilla on October 31.
Llorente was an instrumental figure in Madrid’s Club World Cup title victory last month, scoring a goal and receiving the man-of-the-match nomination in the final against Al Ain. After having decided to stay on at Madrid, Llorente will have to work hard to usurp the returning Casemiro when he gets back from injury. But the 23-year-old will know he has at least shown Solari enough to warrant more prominence in the Argentinean coach’s team.
