World Cup a ‘threat’ to Luka Modric
Ancelotti, worried about how the players will return from Qatar, puts special emphasis on the Croatian, who turns 37 today.
Luka Modric has the Qatar 2022 World Cup coming up between November and December. The Real Madrid player is the captain of Croatia, the team with which he was runner-up at the last World Cup in Russia and he knows that this will be his last World Cup. He is also one of the few representatives of the old guard still in the Croatian national team.
Thanks to the work he has been doing since before the World Cup in Russia, accompanied by kinesiologist Vlatko Vucetic, Modric will arrive at the tournament in top shape, even though he is now 37. But despite his stellar preparation and injury record, Carlo Ancelotti’s concern lies in the day after the World Cup, in how his players will return from Qatar, especially the older players like Karim Benzema.
“It will be a strange season...”
“It will be a strange season. We’ll have to see how the players come back from the World Cup. That’s the doubt. Before, there will be little problem; after, we’ll see. They may come back tired. Normally after a World Cup you go on holiday; they will come back in the middle of the season,” Ancelotti said in Helsinki after the European Super Cup win.
Madrid are set to lose at least 10 players to the World Cup, a number that could increase if Lunin, Asensio, Ceballos, Camavinga, Mendy all make it to the tournament.
Modric is in his eleventh season in a Real Madrid shirt. His contract expired in 2021, but he extended it by one season thanks to his superb performances for Los Blancos.