Real Madrid Copa del Rey: Injury Crisis & Difficult Path

On January 26th, Real Madrid He knew his very hard path in the King’s Cup after entering the draw as first classified in the Endesa League and, thus, as the main seed. But fortune did not accompany the white team, which will face the current champion in the quarterfinals, Unicaja Malagaand in the semifinals they could meet the host, Valencia Basketif it exceeds Youth of Badalona. Two matches of the highest level that would be completed on February 22 with a hypothetical final against the Barcelona.

The demand will be maximum for Real Madrid and the privilege of being first will be minimum. But Sergio Scariolo He has received two pieces of news in recent days that, despite being very bad for basketball and sports as always when an injury occurs, become a small relief as they are two important players who, with almost complete certainty, he will no longer have to worry about.

The first of these two losses was assured by his own coach and is that of Alberto Díaz. The Unicaja captain has not participated for a few weeks with the Andalusian team and was Ibon Navarro who recently confirmed that he will miss the Cup and, therefore, those quarterfinals against Real Madrid in the reissue of the 2025 final, when the Malaga player himself lifted the trophy in The Palms.

«Alberto for the Cup is ruled out. It’s three weeks minimum. Forget about him,” said the Vitorian coach about his captain, who will not be in the Cup due to that muscle injury in the hamstring of his left leg. Real Madrid will prepare the first cup tie knowing that its rival will not have its strongest defender and one of its three best players, Alberto Díaz.

Alberto Díaz KO and Punter is a doubt

Once this drop was known, on Friday night the road became even clearer because the Barçapossible rival in the final of the Roig Arenafear now for Kevin Punter. The star of the Barcelona team retired injured from the match Euroleague before him Baskonia in it Buesa Arena 14 days before the cup event in Valencia. The culé point guard suffered discomfort in his upper adductor and his coach, Xavi Pascualhe seemed really worried about him.

Because it is not only Punter who can make it to the Cup, or not at all, but also the captain of Barcelona, Tomas Satoransky. Both are very important for the Catalan team in ACBwhere the American averages 12.3 points per game compared to the Czech’s 6.7, 2.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists.

High demands for Real Madrid before the Cup

For its part, Real Madrid currently has the loss of Theo Maledon due to an adductor longus muscle injury in his right leg and is dosing Gaby Deckwho has missed this week’s two matches in the Euroleague in Athens y Dubai. The whites’ tortuous path in the Cup seems to be beginning to clear up with confirmed and possible injuries to their potential rivals.

A reason for relief for Scariolo, who will begin to prepare for said championship after focusing on the duels against Coviran Granada this Sunday in the Movistar Arenathe visit to Partizan of Belgrade next Friday and Unicaja itself in the Martin Carpena four days before meeting again in Valencia.