An ankle that will not go down
Nobody at Real Madrid can tell you how long Federico Valverde is out for, and that is precisely the problem.
The Uruguayan went down in Sunday’s derby. Left ankle, caught by a challenge from Kang-In Lee that the referee did not even reach for a card over. Madrid lost 2-1 at Atletico.
Two days on, the joint is still badly swollen. Cope report that further tests have had to be postponed, because until the inflammation settles a scan will show the medical staff nothing they can act on.
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“Several weeks” is already doing the rounds
The Spanish press has not waited for imaging to attach a timescale. Several weeks is the number being floated. It is a guess rather than a diagnosis, but it tells you what the people on the pitch on Sunday thought they were looking at.
Valverde is not a player you slot someone else into. He plays as a holding midfielder, as a box-to-box runner, off the right, and at full-back when a hole needs filling. Absences like that get noticed by the following Monday.
The calendar is unhelpful on top of it. The international break has arrived, the dressing room empties, and the medical process turns into a series of stops and starts. Valverde stays put while everyone else scatters.
A week that keeps getting worse
The derby cost Madrid more than three points. A refereeing row, a manager who lost his temper with the officials, and now an injury list growing at a rate nobody has a firm timeline for.
They will know when the swelling goes down. Not a day earlier.
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