A close shave for Marco Asensio as Real Madrid star picks up bizarre injury

1/83
Standard Sport13 September 2017

With Real Madrid winning three of the last four Champions League titles, game timer is obviously hard to come by in Zinedine Zidane's star-studded squad.

And while injuries are part and parcel of elite football, Marco Asensio may be more than a little frustrated at missing out on his chance to stake a claim after succumbing to a bizarre injury.

Madrid have confirmed that the 21-year-old attacking midfielder will miss Wednesday night's Champions League clash against APOEL Nicosia due to an injury picked up from... shaving.

ESPN quotes Zidane as saying that Asensio is suffering from a "pimple... which stopped him pulling up his socks" - with the youngster reportedly suffering an infection from shaving his legs.

Getty Images

While Asensio's struggles may do little to improve the perception of modern footballers in general, Zidane will be able to welcome back Cristiano Ronaldo to the fold.

The Portuguese was given a five-game ban for being sent off and pushing a referee in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup against Barcelona in August, leading him to miss Real's first three Liga games and next week's trip to Real Sociedad, but is clear to play tonight.

"He's in a very good mood and is very happy to play, because this is what he really loves, playing football, but he's also right mentally and he's happy to be on the pitch again," Zidane told a news conference.

Ronaldo's return boosts Real's attack after a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Levante on Saturday, their second successive home draw which left them trailing early Liga leaders Barcelona and Real Sociedad by four points.

"We all know how good Cristiano is and I prefer him to be with us all the time. We can't talk about Cristiano-dependence, I want everyone to be available all the time," added the Frenchman.

In Pictures | Man United vs Real Madrid, Uefa Super Cup | 08/08/2017

1/43

"Cristiano doesn't just contribute goals, he's a leader, he always wants to win and he transmits that to everyone else. We're all excited to have him back with us."

As well as Ronaldo, Zidane is set to recall Luka Modric and Keylor Navas after resting them to his side's cost against Levante, although Karim Benzema is out for at least a month with a hamstring injury.

Zidane was critical of his side after their display at the weekend, but said he and his players were relaxed despite drawing back-to-back league games for the first time in a year.

"The same thing happened last year so we're not worried at all, the opposite," said Zidane, who is the first coach to successfully defend the European Cup since 1990 and has won seven trophies since taking charge of Real in January 2016.

"We can't be happy with the results, especially the last one, but we're not going to change the way we work, just as we didn't last year. You're always going to have a few bad results in a season," he said.

Additional reporting by Reuters.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in