Barcelona walks into tonight’s El Clásico at the Spotify Camp Nou with a clear path to the trophy. If they avoid defeat, the league title is officially theirs.
It is a grim outlook for the visitors, who confirmed just before traveling that Kylian Mbappé will not be on the plane. The French forward had participated in sessions earlier in the week, but his recovery hit a wall at the worst possible moment.
The situation turned on a dime during the final minutes of Saturday’s training at Valdebebas. According
to Diario MARCA, Kylian Mbappé stopped abruptly with only five minutes left on the clock. He informed the staff of sharp discomfort in his hamstrings and left the pitch immediately. This sudden exit caught the technical team off guard, as they had been feeling quite positive about his progress after a previous quad injury.
The club’s official line is that Kylian Mbappé hasn’t reached the competitive fitness levels required for a game of this magnitude. But for a fanbase already frustrated by his frequent travel and lack of impact in big moments, the timing feels like a massive letdown.
It leaves Álvaro Arbeloa without a player who historically poses a problem for Barcelona, boasting a record of a goal every 67 minutes against them.
Beyond the injury list, the atmosphere in the Madrid camp is volatile. A recent physical fight between Aurélien Tchouaméni and Federico Valverde reportedly resulted in the Uruguayan midfielder being hospitalized with a head injury. While Tchouaméni was named to the squad, Valverde is forced to miss the match to recover.
El País reports that the club issued €500,000 fines to both players to deal with a crisis that has completely destabilized the locker room.
Along with Kylian Mbappé and Federico Valverde, the squad is missing Dani Carvajal, Éder Militão, Rodrygo, Arda Güler, and Ferland Mendy. Even with Thibaut Courtois returning to the goal, the Madrid squad looks thin.
Their list includes backup keepers Andriy Lunin and Sergio Mestre, plus David Alaba, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Raúl Asencio, Álvaro Carreras, Fran García, Antonio Rüdiger, Dean Huijsen, David Jiménez, Jude Bellingham, Eduardo Camavinga, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Thiago Pitarch, Jorge Cestero, César Palacios, Vinícius Júnior, Gonzalo García, Brahim Díaz, and Franco Mastantuono.
