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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Ian Doyle

Real Madrid suffer major double injury blow ahead of Champions League clash with Liverpool

Real Madrid will be without two key midfielders when they take on Liverpool in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Both Aurelien Tchouameni and Toni Kroos are not part of the squad that will fly out to Merseyside on Monday to prepare for the round of 16 first leg clash at Anfield.

Tchouameni, who turned down a transfer to Liverpool last summer and instead moved to the Bernabeu, missed Saturday's 2-0 La Liga win at Osasuna with a bout of flu. Kroos, meanwhile, is still suffering from the gastroenteritis that has seen him sit out Real Madrid's last two matches.

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The double absence is a major blow for Real coach Carlo Ancelotti with the pair having been regular starters in midfield this season, most recently together in the Club World Cup final win over Al-Hilal earlier this month. Left-back Ferland Mendy was already out having missed the last month with a thigh issue.

Against Osasuna, Luka Modric was joined in the engine room by former Arsenal loanee Dani Ceballos and France international Eduardo Camavinga.

Real have at least been boosted by striker Karim Benzema travelling despite missing three of the last five games through muscular problems, while right-back Dani Carvajal allayed any injury fears with an appearance from the bench against Osasuna at the weekend.

FULL REAL MADRID SQUAD v LIVERPOOL: Courtois, Lunin, Luis Lopez; Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Vallejo, Nacho, Odriozola, Lucas Vazquez, Rudiger; Modric, Camavinga, Valverde, Ceballos, Martin, Arribas; Hazard, Benzema, Asensio, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo, Alvaro.

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