Zinedine Zidane has highlighted the importance of Cristiano Ronaldo recovering on time for Manchester City’s clash.
At a press conference ahead of the La Liga match against Real Sociedad, the Frenchman said: “The key thing is that he recovers as soon as possible so that he can play on Wednesday because tomorrow he will not feature. He will work as hard as possible everyday in order to be fit for Wednesday”.
Asked about the game against Real Sociedad, Zidane refused to reveal his starting eleven: “You will see the team, but my idea is to focus on La Liga’s game and then think about Wednesday. We will think about Real Sociedad’s game and about doing the most we can to win, as always. This game is important because it is better to play a midweek game having won at the weekend.”
The Los Blancos manager also spoke about Karim Benzema’s injury: “The closing stages of the season will be very difficult but I can’t go into details because I’m not a doctor. He has a grade 1 injury and that says a lot. It could last seven days, eight… The important thing is that I think he could be back to 100% for Wednesday and it’s vital to see how he works and trains to feature in Wednesday’s game.”
Zidane is expected to rotate some of his regular starters against Real Sociedad. Asked about the possibility of seeing Gareth Bale rest on the bench, the Frenchman was clear: “If Gareth feels fine, he will feature. Karim and Cristiano Ronaldo are not fit and will not play. All the others are ready and we will field the team that we think will work best in order to win”.
