Real Madrid are set to be without another defender for the first Clásico of the season after David Alaba suffered a calf injury at the weekend.
Alarm bells sounded when the 33-year-old was replaced with Raúl Asencio at halftime in Real Madrid’s 1–0 victory over Getafe. Xabi Alonso downplayed any major concerns with Alaba, revealing in this post game press conference that the Austrian’s calf was just “getting stiff.”
Yet after training indoors separately from the team and missing out against Juventus, Alaba’s injury woes are seemingly back at a rather inopportune time for Los Blancos. report the defender’s calf issue will keep him sidelined for at least a week, ruling him out against Barcelona.
Alaba has struggled with fitness ever since he suffered an ACL injury in Dec. 2023. It took the center back 13 months to recover and then he went on to sustain multiple problems that kept him in and out of the infirmary last season.
He also missed the entirety of this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup with a knee injury before returning to action in 2025–26. Alaba’s minutes were slowly increasing over recent weeks, but now he is once again relegated to the sidelines ahead of the biggest match in Spanish football.
