Holidays over, Real Madrid return to work on Monday
La plantilla madridista pasará los test PCR en Valdebebas debido a una negativa de LaLiga para que los servicios médicos acudieran a los domicilios de los jugadores. El 31, a entrenar.
The summer holidays are at an end, and the league champions are due back in work tomorrow morning. The players are expected to report for duty at 08:00 hours in Valdebebas, where they will undergo the routine RT-PCR test to determine whether any of them have been infected by Covid-19 - a procedure which all players, coaching staff and club employees undertook when LaLiga resumed to complete the final 11 games of last season in June. But back then, the players were tested by the club's medical staff in their own homes and not at Real Madrid City. That was how Mariano tested positive without being in contact with the rest of his team mates. Now however, LaLiga have put a stop to that so the club has organised a system whereby testing is staggered so that they players do not have to mix while they wait for their results. Tomorrow, the last day of August, Real Madrid will return to the training ground under Zidane's orders.
On top of the training programme designed for the squad by fitness training Grégory Dupont, most of the players have been keeping in trim by doing their own voluntary workouts - as we have seen with Sergio Ramos, Marco Asensio (who has been training at Mallorca's training complex), Kroos, Marcelo, Benzema, Lucas Vázquez, Casemiro, Rodrygo, Vinicius and Jovic, all of whom have shared videos or photos on their social media accounts. Jovic's case is interesting as he has been working alongside the same fitness trainer he worked with during his confinement in Belgrade. He knows that the club has given him a second chance and it's an opportunity he wants to make the most of...
Madrid players on international duty
The return to work will be held in stages as has been the case during the past few seasons whenever there has been a World Cup or Euros. For the first session, Zidane will be working with Marcelo, Militao, Nacho, Casemiro, Modric, Valverde, Isco, Benzema, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Odegaard and Lucas Vázquez. Madrid have 12 players who have been called up by their respective national teams which means that Courtois, Hazard, Ramos, Carvajal, Asensio, Reguilón, Lunin, Mendy, Varane, Kroos, Bale and Jovic will rejoin the squad the following week.
A number of players are expected to be moving on - Mariano (who could be joining Benfica), Ceballos, Mayoral (who will probably join Valencia), Odriozola (who is still on holiday after winning the Champions League with Bayern, with whom he will remain this season), James and Brahim, who will both be leaving - The Colombian is close to signing for Everton, Brahim will go out on loan.
Real Madrid's Youth League champions
Completing the list, Zizou plans to draft a dozen players who recently won the Youth League to train alongside the senior players - Luis, Toni Fuidias, Santos, Víctor Chust, Miguel Gutiérrez, Antonio Blanco, Morante, Arribas, Marvin and Latasa. Also expected to work with the first team squad this week is Castilla's Javi Hernández.