“Real Madrid’s Virgil van Dijk” trusted by Carlo Ancelotti amid injury crisis | OneFootball

Real Madrid have had a bad few days on the injury front – not only are Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe affected, but their defence is a mess again too.

During Saturday’s defeat at Espanyol, Antonio Rudiger pulled up with a hamstring injury, and as a result, he will be out for the next three weeks. And added to that, David Alaba has been struck down again after only just returning from a 13-month absence after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament, and he will be out for a similar length of time.

Real Madrid face a crucial run of fixtures in the next few weeks, with matches against Atletico Madrid and Manchester City (x2) coming up. For these, they will only have Raul Asencio and Jesus Vallejo (who is out of favour) as natural central defenders, which means that Aurelien Tchouameni will continue his role as a makeshift centre-back.

David Alaba’s latest injury means that Real Madrid are very short of cover in the centre of defence (Photo by Diario de la Escuadra)

Because of this, two La Fabrica talents will make the step up to the first team for the time being. Mario Rivas is one, as he has been called up for Wednesday’s Copa del Rey quarter-final tie against Leganes, while the player most likely to be utilised by Carlo Ancelotti is Jacobo Ramon, who has already been in-and-around the first team in recent months.

As per Diario AS, Ancelotti counts greatly on Ramon, who is known within Real Madrid as being alike to Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk, often referred to as the world’s best central defender. Given that gruelling schedule in the coming weeks, he has chances to play in matches against Leganes or Osasuna, as it is unlikely that he will be counted on against Atletico Madrid or Manchester City.

Ramon has impressed for Castilla this season, and at the age of 19, he is someone that can stake his claim for a long-term place at Real Madrid.