REAL MADRID
Zidane has €400m worth of players for Real Madrid training
Injuries and players not being called up means Zinedine Zidane has 14 players from his first team squad at Valdebebas for the next two weeks.
There has barely enough time to congratulate Zidane for Real Madrid's win over Granada and their position atop LaLiga before the international break kicked in. In his interview after the game, he said: "I would like to have everyone healthy and ready but they never stop. For example, we will stay here but many of them will go with their national teams. It is what is is."
Zidane's complaints are justified (Carvajal, Ramos, Areola, Varane, Courtois, Hazard, Bale, Modric, Militao, Casemiro, Valverde and Rodrygo have all left) but plenty still remain in Valdebebas for the next week and more.
Zidane with plenty of talent to call on during international break
Between injuries and not being called up, Zidane has €402.4 million worth of players at training during the current international break and can work with them on tactics, fitness and everything in between. Odriozola, Nacho, Marcelo, Mendy, Kroos, James, Isco, Lucas, Asensio, Brahim, Vinicius, Benzema, Jovic and Mariano are all available to the manager.
That isn't to say all of them can participate fully in training. Asensio is still recovering from his knee injury, Nacho won't be back until the start of December, Kroos is three weeks away from a return too. Marcelo did part of the training session on Tuesday but is not recovered fully from his recent injury while Mendy continues to train alone ahead of a full return.