Troubled Real Madrid suffers host of injuries

Real Madrid's woes after the club's shocking exit from the Champions League round of 16 continued on Thursday as the team reported that defender Dani Carvajal and midfielder Lucas Vazquez are expected to miss action for weeks due to injury.

Carvajal and Vazquez joined Wales winger Gareth Bale and Brazilian forward Vinicius Junior on the sideline, all having sustained injuries during Tuesday's 4-1 defeat to Ajax in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 that saw the Dutch team advance into the quarterfinals with a 5-3 win on aggregate, reports Efe news.

The 27-year-old Carvajal sustained "a grade 2 injury to the rectus femoris muscle in his right thigh," while Vazquez, also 27 years old, was forced out of the Ajax match in the 29th minute with an muscle pull diagnosed as a left hamstring injury; going forward both players are set to be monitored, according to the capital club statements.

Meanwhile, Vinicius, who was also injured in the 36th minute in the same match, is set to be sidelined for about two months after sustaining a right knee ligament tear.

Bale ended the match with a sprained right ankle, but alongside Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas and Spanish defender Sergio Reguilon, trained on Thursday inside the facilities.

Midfielder Marcos Llorente, who was injured on February 6 during the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, trained on the pitch. His recovery is still underway.

In the wake of the several injuries, coach Santiago Solari will have to introduce new faces in his lineup for the away La Liga game against Valladolid set for next Sunday.

Three times over the course of the past week Madrid lost three games at home; this has likely doomed the club to end the 2018-2019 campaign without a trophy.

The capital side lost two matches to Barcelona, the first of which put the capital team out of the Spanish Cup, the second loss basically ended Madrid's chance to win the La Liga this season and the last loss was against Ajax, ending the Spanish side's Champions League campaign.

After hoisting the Champions League trophy a record 13 times, Madrid now finds itself eliminated from the Champions League in the round of 16 knockout stage, for the first time for the capital team since 2010.

Ajax, whose last trip to the Champions League quarter-finals was 16 years ago, is now set to be the tourney's Cinderella.

--IANS

ajb/bg