Real Madrid: Four Castilla players in Bettoni's list for the Levante game
Apart from Altube, the assistant coach has included Chust, Blanco and Arribas for Saturday's visit from Levante. Five players are out injured and Nacho has Covid-19.
On the advice of Zinedine Zidane, David Bettoni has drawn up Real Madrid's squad list for Saturday's LaLiga meeting with Levante. Madrid go into the game with a number of players out injured which forced the assistant coach to turn to the reserves. In total, four Castilla players have been included in the list - apart from third choice goalkeeper Diego Altube, who is a regular feature in Zidane's lists, Antonio Blanco, Víctor Chust and Sergio Arribas have been called up. All of them training with the first team in Valdebebas today - as did another youth team player, Sergio Santos, who didn't make the list.
Five Madrid players out injured
Sergio Ramos will miss Levante's visit. The captain is still recovering from discomfort to his knee although there was a positive message from Bettoni, who told reporters in today's press conference that Ramos is showing improvement every day. Dani Carvajal also misses out, as he he is still not fully over the muscular injury which has made him sit out the last four games. That's a problem for Bettoni at right-back as Lucas Vázquez, who normally covers for Carvajal under Zidane, is also unavailable. The only available right-back is Álvaro Odriozola, who makes the 20-man squad list.
Fede Valverde is still out recovering from an adductor problem while Rodrygo has another month to go in his rehabilitation for the muscular injury he suffered against Granada back on 23 December.