Real Madrid announced on the morning of Sunday’s Clásico against Barcelona that the club’s first-choice goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was a “last-minute withdrawal” from the roster after a bout of flu. Yet that was swiftly followed by multiple reports claiming that the Belgian had not yet given up hope of featuring.
Amid the constant flux of chaos which swirls around the Spanish capital, Courtois has been one point of reliable consistency. The towering Belgian routinely bails out the porous defense sat in front of him, making the spectacular appear serene after meeting those standards so often. In a position where mistakes are punished unlike any other, Courtois hasn’t made a single error leading to a La Liga goal in any of the past three seasons.
