Real Madrid’s Champions League final hero, Thibaut Courtois is facing a race against time to be fit for the clash against Liverpool later this month after sustaining an injury on Sunday.
Liverpool will not have forgotten the role Courtois played in the Champions League final last year, the Belgian almost single-handedly keeping the Reds at bay to help his side lift the trophy.
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But Courtois’ involvement against the Reds at Anfield on February 21 has been cast into doubt after he sustained an injury during the warm-up ahead of the 1-0 defeat by Real Mallorca.
The Belgian was named in the starting XI but complained of an issue during the warm-up and was subsequently replaced by Andriy Lunin.
After the match, manager Carlo Ancelotti said of the injury to Courtois: “[He] had a problem in the warm-ups and we’ll have tests tomorrow to see exactly what the issue is.
“We know it was bad enough that he wasn’t able to play in this game.”
According to the Athletic, Courtois will not travel to Morocco for the Club World Cup with the rest of the squad, with scans set to take place to determine the severity of his adductor injury.
In Courtois’ absence on Sunday, Real Madrid fell to their third league defeat of the season, with Nacho Fernandez’s own goal in the first half proving the difference.
Ancelotti’s side had the chance to equalise on the hour mark but Marco Asensio had his penalty saved, the defeat leaves Real eight points behind leaders Barcelona.
Los Blancos, who were without Karim Benzema due to injury, had only one shot on target throughout their clash with 10th-placed Mallorca, and that was the penalty itself.
They now have two games to play in the Club World Cup and another two league matches before their trip to Anfield, and their injury concerns are growing with Courtois, Benzema, Eder Militao and Eden Hazard having all picked up knocks over the last week.
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