out of the Club World Cup semi-final against
America on Thursday.
Head coach Zinedine Zidane has confirmed that the
Spain international will not be risked for the
meeting with the CONCACAF Champions League
holders after complaining of a minor problem
picked up following their long journey to Japan.
"Sergio Ramos won't play," Zidane told a news
conference on Wednesday. "He felt some
discomfort and the trip tired him a little, so we are
not going to risk him."
Ramos has been pivotal to his side's unbeaten
start to the season and has scored invaluable late
goals in recent weeks to keep them six points clear
at the top of LaLiga.
The centre-back headed in a late equaliser in the
Clasico at Camp Nou before scoring the winner in
last Saturday's 3-2 victory over Deportivo La
Coruna, in which Madrid opted to rest a number of
first-team stars including Cristiano Ronaldo and
Luka Modric.
However, Zidane expects the rest of his 23-man
squad to be fully fit for Thursday's game, including
Ballon d'Or-winner Ronaldo.
"Aside from Ramos, we are all ready to play -
Cristiano as well," he said.
"I want to play the best team possible. We have a
lot of different options but the idea is to field the
best team.
"We know the importance of the competition and
we want to try to win it. We're a bit tired but we're
ready for the game.
"We've received an amazing reception from the
fans. We're often very far away and so we're not
able to share this with these supporters.
"We don't need months to get to know an
opponent. We've spoken about that, we'll talk
through the details but we have to have a great
game.
"We'll need to fight to reach the final."
The European champions begin their quest to claim
club football's global title in Yokohama.
0 Comments