Pintus brings out his magic for Real Madrid
Only Dani Carvajal gave the club a scare on the United States tour this summer.
The ‘Pintus method’ works. The demands from Real Madrid’s fitness coach are enormous. Carlo Ancelotti’s right-hand man puts the club’s players through a gruelling pre-season regime. This is something that Luka Modric has himself acknowledged, after a session in Los Angeles: “We are running a lot with Pintus, a lot, and it is very hard, really. But in the end it’s important to be right for the rest of the season”. Time will tell how the team will be in January, but today, a few days before the first game of the new season is played, the European Super Cup (August 10, 9:00 p.m.), the club have no injuries to report.
All summer there has only been one small scare: Dani Carvajal. The right-back suffered an ankle sprain on July 22, which made him leave the UCLA training camp. But tests determined that it was just a sprain. The side rested and were able to return to play their last friendly against Juventus. Ankles have brought Madrid down the path of bitterness in recent years: Dani Ceballos at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and Eden Hazard are some examples of players who, by force, they only made their situations worse. Carvajal put his focus on the Super Cup and will be ready. He has been training all week.
Madrid at full strength
The rest of the team has worked this month without any problems. Ancelotti’s squad are working to the demands of Pintus, who is ending his training sessions with a lot of physical work. As 10 August approaches, there will be more ball and less sprints. The Italian coach has everything under control.
Injured players at Madrid
Last season, Real Madrid suffered 62 injuries. Of the 62, only 20 lasted more than 20 days. Karim Benzema, Fede Valverde and David Alaba were the three players who spent the most time out. The forward spent just over three weeks in cotton wool due to a micro-tear in his biceps femoris. In the case of the Halcón, he fell badly in a jump with Gerard Piqué, in the Clásico at Camp Nou, and he sprained the lateral ligament of his left knee (32 days out). Alaba was the most recent: an adductor injury left him out at the Etihad and he could not play the second leg at the Bernabéu. Only three ‘serious’ episodes in an entire season.