Real Madrid lose star man to injury just three minutes into Champions League campaign | OneFootball

Real Madrid got Jude Bellingham and Eduardo Camavinga back from injury for their Champions League debut against Olympique Marseille, with both on the bench for Xabi Alonso. However it took all of three minutes for Los Blancos to lose another of their star names to injury at the Santiago Bernabeu.

As he collected the ball on the right flank, Trent Alexander-Arnold could already tell that he had done himself damage before he passed the ball, and ended up going down. The 26-year-old went to the floor holding the back of his thigh. After a couple of minutes of discussion with the medical staff, Alexander-Arnold hobbled off the pitch.

Alexander-Arnold suffers second muscle injury at Real Madrid

It is the second time that he has suffered a muscle issue since arriving at Real Madrid. Alexander-Arnold was absent for Xabi Alonso’s only defeat thus far as manager of Los Blancos, missing their Club World Cup drubbing at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain in Miami. That was a minor issue though, and he returned in preseason fully fit.

Image via Marca.

A minor muscle strain can mean as little as a one to two-week absence if it is indeed his hamstring, as the area of he was holding would suggest. A grade two injury would mean three or four weeks out for the England international, and anything more serious opens the possibility to multiple months out of action.

Replaced by Dani Carvajal

Alexander-Arnold is currently locked in a battle for his starting spot with captain Dani Carvajal. The pair have split their starts so far in La Liga, and Carvajal, only recently recovering from his own cruciate ligament injury, will take this as a chance to assert himself. Either way, it is a setback for Xabi Alonso, who had differing qualities in both.