The Italian explained that Vinicius will be back from COVID-19 but unlikely to play. Karim Benzema, Luka Modric and Ferland Mendy join Dani Carvajal and Gareth Bale on the medical report.
Bale doesn’t feel right
Carlo Ancelotti has spoken ahead of Real Madrid’s match against Alcoyano, and he provided an extensive update on the injury and COVID-19 status of his players. The Italian explained that Vinicius will be back from COVID-19 but unlikely to play. Karim Benzema, Luka Modric and Ferland Mendy join Dani Carvajal and Gareth Bale on the medical report. In the case of Bale, though, he doesn’t have a specific injury, and the coach was asked what is wrong with the Welshman. “Bale doesn’t feel right, but he isn’t injured,” Ancelotti said. “He is committed because he has six months left on his contract. But, he doesn’t feel good or comfortable. If he is scared about suffering a problem, then we have to evaluate this. Not releasing injury updates is a general thing, something to respect each individual’s privacy.”
Los Blancos will take this game very seriously
“We hope to have him back for the Valencia game this weekend or for the Supercopa de Espana in Saudi Arabia.” Moving on to talk about the Copa del Rey opponents, who knocked Real Madrid out at this same stage last season, Ancelotti insisted he and his players will take this game seriously. “We will take this game very seriously,” the coach told the assembled media. “It is a one-off game on the road, and you can be eliminated with one bad game. This is an important competition, and our objective is to win this cup. We’ll need quality. Ours is theoretically superior to that of our opponents, but we’ll also need concentration to win aerial duels and to be good at set-pieces.”
“I want to be clear when I say I’ll put out the best team possible, apart from in goal where I’ll give minutes to Andriy Lunin, who deserves it.”
The coach was also asked about the latest Kylian Mbappe rumours, with reports from Italian agent Giovanni Branchini that Real Madrid have made a new offer of 50 million euros for the forward. “I don’t think it’s fair to speak about players who aren’t here,” Ancelotti said. “I have a good relationship with Giovanni Branchini. He is a friend. But, I don’t want to speak about this subject.”