Kylian Mbappe will not play at the Camp Nou. Although Real Madrid officially released the squad list just moments before the trip to Barcelona, the club had taken it for granted the day before that the Frenchman would not be ready in time.
However, his absence was confirmed in the most unexpected way for Madrid fans: Mbappe was not even included in the squad. The striker remained in Madrid, after a strong “blow” that fell at Valdebebas, when no one expected him.
According to what “ MARCA ” reports, just five minutes before the end of the last training session at Valdebebas, Mbappe suddenly stopped. He felt discomfort in his hamstring, announced that he could not continue and left the training session, surprising everyone.
Up until that point, there had been optimism among the coaching staff. Training was going smoothly and the Frenchman’s presence had raised hopes that Real Madrid would have a decisive player at their disposal to face Barcelona – an opponent against whom Mbappe had been relentless, with frightening statistics: a goal every 67 minutes.
In fact, Mbappe had trained on Thursday and Friday without any apparent problems, after medical tests had given positive signals and suggested that he had overcome the muscle injury.
But the recovery has not been sufficient. Real insist that the striker did not meet the minimum requirements to be authorised to play and, for this reason, was ultimately left out of the list for the trip to Barcelona.
