The Belgian attacker suffers from patellar tendinitis in his left knee and will miss the visit to Mallorca and the Club World Cup
Eden Hazard is still in free fall. Real Madrid reported this Saturday that the Belgian attacker is suffering from patellar tendinitis in his left knee, which has prevented him from being selected for his team’s match against Mallorca on Sunday, which corresponds to the 20th matchday of the League. The ‘7’ also cannot travel to Morocco, where the whites will take on the World Cup for club teams next week.
This is Hazard’s third injury so far this season and the 16th he has suffered since landing at Real Madrid in 2019 on a mission to become the new flag of the whites, following the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo a year before he left for Juventus.
A goal that has been watered down due to the physical fragility of the once-brilliant Chelsea winger, whose ordeal began shortly after arriving at Real Madrid with that submission by his compatriot Thomas Meunier during a Champions League match against PSG that sent him to infirmary and has eventually turned him into a shadow of what he was.
Hazard has appeared in just seven games so far this season, playing 328 minutes making him Carlo Ancelotti’s fourth least used outfield player, just ahead of Vallejo, Odriozola and Mariano.
The Italian coach has only allowed him to start in three games: one in the Champions League, against Shakhtar in Warsaw; one of the Copa del Rey, against Cacereño, also far from the Santiago Bernabéu; and another in the league, right against Mallorca on matchday five.
That collision with the vermilion box clearly marked him. Ancelotti turned to the Belgian as a false nine in Benzema’s absence and given the good response he had provided by replacing the Lyon striker five days earlier when he was injured against Celtic in the Champions League, but broke a bone.
Hazard had scored a goal and provided an assist at Celtic Park after leaping onto the pitch after the first half hour of a 3-0 Real Madrid win. He pulled back with a smile and hoped that this duel would finally be a turning point in his disappointing journey with the white elastic. Actually, it was a mirage.
Hazard’s poor performance against Mallorca was another pitcher of cold water. Ancelotti was ineffective as a false striker and opted to withdraw him in the 59th minute to give Modric a chance. With the score tied at 1-1, Reggiolo coach decided to spearhead Rodrygo and the move was a godsend for a team that completed the comeback thanks in large part to the defining impact of the São Paulo player. In the 72nd minute, Rodrygo broke Mallorca’s wall with an assist from Vinicius and in the 89th minute he sealed the game with a superb game.
That day, Ancelotti certainly put the cross on Hazard. The Belgian has not appeared in the competition again and only came up short in three other games. The coach gave him 57 minutes against Shakhtar, 14 against Leipzig and 68 against Cacereño.
He also did not raise his head during the World Cup in Qatar, where Belgium was eliminated in the first round and Hazard was relegated to the bench in the last game against Croatia. The three minutes that Roberto Martínez gave him at the end of that game were the last with the “red devils” of a footballer who resigned from the national team after the World Cup and accelerated his final months at Real Madrid. His contract expires on June 30, 2024, but everything points to the summer departure of a footballer who spent his time in the Premier League with the best in the world and whose decline does not seem to be returning.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
