Thibaut Courtois celebrates a Real Madrid victory. /
Real Madrid
The Belgian Real Madrid goalkeeper, who has missed the last four games, will return to training this Thursday
After missing the last four games due to sciatica, Thibaut Courtois aims to reappear on Sunday in the classic at the Santiago Bernabéu. Except for unexpected setbacks, the Belgian Real Madrid goalkeeper will return to training this Thursday after having improved from the ailment that has prevented him from defending the goal against Osasuna, Getafe and the double duel in the Champions League against Shakhtar. His substitute, Andriy Lunin, kept Madrid’s goal against Getafe for the first time this season in the League, but the Ukrainian goalkeeper will have to give his place to Courtois, who has undergone treatment these days to be available to receive Barca.
“Courtois is much better. We have spoken with him before leaving Madrid. The plan is for him to start training on Thursday and be ready for Sunday », Carlo Ancelotti confirmed the day before the trip of the European and League champions to Warsaw to face Shakhtar. If the forecasts come true, the Belgian international will have three training sessions to prepare for the classic against the current leader of the league championship. Real Madrid is also keeping an eye on Antonio Rüdiger after the German defender, who is not ruled out for the duel against the azulgranas, received twenty stitches after the tremendous blow to the forehead received when scoring the equalizer ‘in extremis’ of whites in the Polish capital.
In the six league games that Courtois has played so far he has conceded a goal, but this season, in the Super Cup (2-0 against Eintracht) and in the first two days of the Champions League, he kept a clean sheet against Celtic (0-3) and Leipzig (2-0), with different pairs of central defenders. In Glasgow Militao and Alaba played at the start and against the Germans at the Bernabéu Nacho and Rüdiger were lined up, who repeated in Warsaw. Precisely, the German defender signed his best match dressed in white on Tuesday night. The day after the classic, Courtois hopes to receive the Yashin Trophy for the best goalkeeper of 2022 in Paris on Monday, during the Ballon d’Or gala that will award Karim Benzema as the most outstanding footballer of the year.
