The fear of every club manager is that their players come back from international duty in
Real Madrid have been left counting the cost of the international break after a number of their players reported back with injuries, notably left-backs Marcelo and Fabio Coentrao.
Brazilian Marcelo broke a metatarsal while training for his country’s friendly against Japan in Poland last week, while Coentrao was forced off after just 20 minutes of Portugal’s clash with Russia.
Mourinho was expected to move his first-choice right-back Alvaro Arbeloa over to left-back until Coentrao recovers, but those plans went up in smoke when Arbeloa limped off early in the second half in the Spain v France match,
Real Madrid and France forward Karim Benzema also suffered a late knock to his knee but after the game he told French sports daily L’Equipe:
“I just took a knock, nothing too serious.”