2023-08-10 17:30:04
Terrible news for Real Madrid in the run-up to the white team starting their journey in the League championship with a highly demanding match against Athletic at San Mamés. Thibaut Courtois, one of the most important players in Carlo Ancelotti’s squad and a bulwark in recent seasons under sticks, suffers the feared rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and will undergo surgery in the coming days.
The goalkeeper was injured in the last preparatory session in Valdebebas, from which he had to be removed on a stretcher and crying, which already foreshadowed the extent of the illness. The situation did not invite optimism from the outset and the white club confirmed the worst omens through a statement issued after subjecting him to the relevant diagnostic imaging tests.
An undisputed starter since his arrival at Real Madrid in the summer of 2018, the Belgian goalkeeper has only dropped out of the Whites’ starting lineups due to specific and brief ailments or rotations in matches and tournaments of lesser importance. Last season he played 49 games in all competitions and performed at the stratospheric level of the 2021-22 campaign, when he was a pillar of the Champions-Liga double won in Ancelotti’s return. This is the first serious injury of his entire career, which increases the uncertainty of the impact it may have on a footballer at the height of his career.
Courtois, probably the best goalkeeper in the world, will be out for at least six months plus the corresponding adjustment, which will also coincide with the key moment of the season. Covering his gap in the squad is complicated, practically an impossible mission. Now, in the offices of Real Madrid they have to decide between the risky option of trusting the Ukrainian Andriy Lunin until at least mid-February or March or, as everything indicates, opting to go on the market for an urgent starting goalkeeper but also full guarantees.
Lunin does not finish convincing Ancelotti. In fact, the Ukrainian goalkeeper already had a run-in with Luis Llopis, Madrid’s goalkeeper coach, in the preseason in the United States. Last season he played 12 games, his best record at the Chamartín club, for the four in the 2021-22 season and the only duel in which he participated in 2020-21.
Alternatives
In this complicated situation, the name of David de Gea reappears on the scene, that old object of desire of Florentino Pérez who did not sign for Real Madrid in 2015 due to bureaucratic problems that caused the fax with the agreement to arrive late at the headquarters of the then Professional Soccer League. That colossal logistical error ruined the operation and caused Illescas’ goalkeeper to stay in Manchester and Keylor Navas to undertake the unexpected return trip to the capital of Spain.
Now, the circumstances are very different and the Spanish international goalkeeper is free on the market after ending his contract with Manchester United and not being renewed. In this sense, the incorporation of him fits by name and also by the fact that it does not imply any transfer. The problem is that he received 26 million euros of salary at Old Trafford, being one of the highest paid footballers in the Premier League. He also has the drawback of a high cache that implies great competition with Courtois when the Belgian recovers.
Another plausible alternative is Kepa Arrizabalaga, who seemed to have regained his chances of starting at Chelsea after Édouard Mendy left for Saudi football but whose situation at Stamford Bridge is complicated again with the signing of Robert Sánchez, also a Spaniard. . It so happens that the Basque was already very close to reaching Madrid in the winter market of 2018, but the support of the then white coach, Zidane, for Keylor Navas stopped the movement. Unai Simón or David Soria, whose incorporation has already been tested in the offices of Concha Espina but as second goalkeeper, are other futures, although in principle as more remote alternatives.
Madrid, which must remove the daisy from the goal with some speed, received another setback on Thursday, as the young Arda Güller will have to undergo surgery to treat his meniscus injury.
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