Jose Mourinho will begin his second Real Madrid tenure on Saturday with a treatment room five names deep and his first-choice defensive midfielder held back for lack of match rhythm.
Aurelien Tchouameni is not injured. He is simply not match fit. After his summer with France at the World Cup, the midfielder followed an individual training programme instead of joining pre-season straight away, and has not played a single friendly.
“Tchouameni is fine, but he needs to train this Friday, Saturday and Sunday to accelerate his recovery. He arrived in a condition that won’t allow him to be fully fit for this match,” Mourinho told his pre-match press conference on Friday. Tchouameni is available for the squad but will not start.
The Portuguese was appointed on a three-year contract on 11 June, replacing Alvaro Arbeloa, and started work with the squad in mid-July.
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The rest of the injury list
Five other players are ruled out of the trip to Barcelona, according to preview coverage:
- Rodrygo: knee
- Eder Militao: muscle
- Ferland Mendy: hip
- Raul Asencio: thigh
- Endrick: muscle
“The only player who is out for this match who wasn’t here last season is Endrick,” Mourinho said.
Rodri hangs over the midfield
Mourinho was also asked about Rodri, the Spain international who chose Barcelona this summer after Madrid explored a move.
“Rodri would have been like the icing on the cake. He is a great player, with great experience and great status,” he said.
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“I don’t think we have a deficit in midfield.”
With Tchouameni on the bench, the anchor role is expected to fall to Eduardo Camavinga, alongside Federico Valverde and Jude Bellingham. Arda Guler is set to complete the middle, and Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe are expected to lead the attack. A back three of Dean Huijsen, Antonio Rudiger and Ibrahima Konate is in line to start.
Espanyol will be without Kike Garcia and Javi Puado through injury, and Leandro Cabrera is suspended. Kick-off at the RCDE Stadium is on Saturday at 20:30.
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