Casemiro will not play against Villarreal so he can recover from the hit he had in the Espanyol game. Casemiro was checked this morning in Madrid after leaving the pitch on Sunday and he has no main injury. These are the good news, however he has a blow in the left calf and the muscle is swelled up, so it’s better for him to rest.
Zinedine Zidane doesn’t want to take any risk with Casemiro, so the Brazilian player will miss the game against Villarreal on Wednesday. It’s not a serious injury, so he should be fit to face Las Palmas on Saturday, a very difficult game where he scored the decisive goal last season in the injury time.
Casemiro will miss the second game of the season. The stopper didn’t play against Osasuna at home fifteen days ago because the French manager wanted to give him some rest after playing with Brazil international games. Casemiro was substituted on Sunday in the 20th minute of the game after a collision with a Espanyol player. Toni Kroos came into the pitch for him.
Casemiro doesn’t have a natural replacement in the squad. However, Mateo Kovacic could play instead of the Brazilian as a defensive midfielder. The other option for Zidane is to repeat the team at Cornellà, with Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and James Rodríguez in the midfield. All three played a good game and, actually, the team improved when Kroos came into the pitch.
However, Casemiro is a very important player for Zidane and no one contests the team without the Brazilian. The French manager realized last year the importance of having a stopper in the team, so the offensive players could think more in attacking rather than defending.
The good news for Zidane is that he can count with Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo. Both Real Madrid stars missed the game on Sunday. The Portuguese was sick whereas the Welshman had physical problems after the game against Sporting Lisbon.
