Benzema, Alaba to return to Real Madrid training next Saturday – report | OneFootball

According to journalist Arancha Rodriguez (h/t RM4Arab), Real Madrid duo Karim Benzema and David Alaba will return to the club next Saturday and rejoin training ahead of the resumption of the La Liga season later this month.

Benzema has not played for Los Blancos since the first week of November when he featured against Celtic in the UEFA Champions League. Having struggled with muscular discomfort, the Frenchman has missed a good number of matches for the club already.

While he looked set to recover in time for the FIFA World Cup, a thigh injury in training ruled him out of the France squad for the tournament in Qatar. Having returned to Madrid, Benzema soon departed to the Reunion Islands for a vacation.

With his recovery believed to be close to completion, Benzema is set to start training again with Carlo Ancelotti and the Real Madrid players who have not travelled to the World Cup starting next Saturday.

Benzema will be joined by defender David Alaba, who was also given an extended break even though his national team, Austria, are not participating in the World Cup.

But they did play two friendly matches against Andorra and Italy in November, with Alaba participating in both those matches. Hence, the versatile defender was also given a longer time off by manager Ancelotti.

The rest of the Real Madrid players who are not at the World Cup, such as Toni Kroos, Dani Ceballos, and Lucas Vazquez, among others, resumed training on December 1.

They will soon be joined by Benzema and Alaba, as well as Los Blancos’ stars who have been eliminated from the World Cup such as Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois.

The reigning La Liga champions resume the season with an away match against Real Valladolid on December 30. Real Madrid are trailing Barcelona in the table currently and will hope to restart the campaign on a winning note.