Mbappé in line for early injury return in UCL
Kylian Mbappé has recovered from injury and is available to play for Real Madrid against Lille in the Champions League, Carlo Ancelotti confirmed, saying “if there’s no risk, he’ll play from the first minute.”
Mbappé suffered a thigh injury in Madrid’s 3-2 LaLiga win over Alavés on Sept. 24, with a source telling ESPN the forward was expected to be out of action for around three weeks.
However, the France captain travelled with the Madrid squad to Lille on Tuesday, and speaking in his pre-match news conference later, Ancelotti confirmed that Mbappé was back in contention.
“Yes, he’s recovered well, fast,” Ancelotti said. “But he only trained on his own yesterday. He’s been out for a short time so he hasn’t lost his condition. We’ll train now, he’ll train with us and then we’ll evaluate and take the right decision. We don’t want to take any risks.”
Mbappé — who has scored seven goals for Madrid this season in all competitions — missed just one game, Real’s 1-1 draw at Atlético Madrid in the derby on Sunday.
“He had a strain,” Ancelotti said. “Now with new technology they talk about grade one, grade two… In just under a week, he’s recovered well. He wanted to travel to play. If he feels good, 100%, he could play. If there’s no risk, he’ll play from the first minute.”
The Madrid derby was interrupted in the second half, when the referee suspended the game after objects were thrown by Atlético fans behind one of the Metropolitano goals.
Ancelotti was reluctant to comment on criticism from Atlético coach Diego Simeone and captain Koke of Thibaut Courtois, after they alleged that the goalkeeper’s celebration of Éder Militão‘s goal had provoked the incident.
“As always, I respect everyone’s opinion,” Ancelotti said. “But I think the issue is quite clear. There were violent acts at the game, and violent people can’t be at a football game, or in society… Everyone saw what happened.
“Talking about Courtois’ behaviour when during the game [the fans] sung ‘die’ [at him] I don’t know how many times… It’s missing the point. I don’t know what else to say.”
Madrid midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni condemned the fans’ behaviour.
“It isn’t a good thing for the image of football,” Tchouameni said. “It could be in Spain, France, Brazil, anywhere… A lot of people and kids watch games, and they want to enjoy the spectacle. We have to deal with this problem.”
Madrid beat Stuttgart 3-1 in their opening Champions League game at the Bernabéu, while Lille — who are fifth in Ligue 1 — lost 2-0 at Sporting CP.
