Red alert for Madrid as Jovic becomes fourth injury of tour
Following Brahim Díaz, Ferland Mendy and Marco Asensio, Luka Jovic became the latest to have suffered an injury set back for Real Madrid.
Along with the disastrous results against Bayern Munich and Atlético Madrid, Real Madrid have also had to face a number of injury scares so far in this pre-season.
Following Brahim Díaz, Ferland Mendy and Marco Asensio, Luka Jovic became the latest to have suffered an injury set back and was taken off in the 28th minute in the 7-3 defeat to Atléti on Friday night.
The club has not yet reported the extent of Jovic's injury but the Serbian striker looked to have taken a knock to the left ankle after Atléti goalkeeper Jan Oblak fell on him.
Real Madrid suffering similar trend to last season
Brahim has returned to training and is expected to be back in a week, while Mendy is set for another three weeks on the sidelines after he sustained two muscle injuries in the game against Arsenal on Wednesday.
But the worst news for coach Zinedine Zidane has been Marco Asensio, who ruptured his ACL against the Gunners and will be out for several months.
The injury trend is similar to the problem that Madrid suffered last season. At the beginning of January, Los Blancos had accumulated 31 injuries (23 muscular) in just five months of competition.
The club now has a new fitness coach in Grégory Dupont, who has so far had to deal with the issue of a high frequency of injuries like his predecessors, Oscar Caro (Lopetegui) and Antonio Pintus (Solari, Zidane), last season.