Marcos Llorente returns to full training with Real Madrid
The midfielder, who's been out since January with an adductor injury, completed today's session and should be available to Zidane for the Huesca game.
Things have started to look up for Marcos Llorente, who has taken another postive step towards his return. The Real Madrid midfielder, who completed part of Tuesday's session with the rest of the squad, was able to finish today's workout and medical staff feel confident that he will be back at ful fitness by the end of the international break and should be available for selection when Huesca visit the Bernabéu on 31 March.
Squad to be granted a few days off
Llorente, who had been suffering problems with his adductor since the start of the New Year, suffered a muscle tear in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final on 6 February at Camp Nou. The following day, a scan revealed a Grade II injury to the adductor muscle of his left leg - a recurerance of the injury he had suffered several weeks previously. At the time, he was given a recovery period of between six and eight weeks but he managed to return ahead of schedule. With the remainder of this week's training programme and next week's (the squad will probably be given the weekend off, and return to the training ground on Tuesday evening), Llorente will have enough time to build up rhythm to give him the chance of being in the starting XI against Huesca, if Zidane feels to give him a run-out.
Opportunities under Zidane
Casemiro, who competes with Llorente for a place in the side, will return from international duty after playing the full 90 minutes in both of Brazil's matches - against Panama in Porto on the 23rd and then against the Czech Republic in Prague three days later. It will depend on how Tite decides to use Casemiro but it could be good news for Llorente if Casemiro returns tired and Zidane chooses to rest him. The 24-year-old has never really figured too much under Zidane - last season he racked up just 1,063 minutes, just 19% of the possible playing time.
The rest of Madrid's injured players continued to train apart. Lucas Vázquez was seen out on the pitches in Valdebebas and has started working with the ball; Carvajal and Vinicius exercised indoors. With only 13 members of his 25-man squad to work with during the international break, Zidane beefed up the numbers by bringing in Castilla's Manolo Díaz, Rubén Pulido, and Under-19s defender Dani Poyatos.