Cristiano Ronaldo will miss Saturday's Madrid Derby due to a thigh injury, Real Madrid assistant coach Aito Karanka confirmed on Friday. Karanka does expect Ronaldo to be fit for Tuesday's Champions League semifinal second leg against Borussia Dortmund, though.
Cristiano Ronaldo injury: Real Madrid star ruled out of Madrid Derby
Real Madrid will head into the Madrid Derby without Cristiano Ronaldo, who is out with a thigh injury.
“Ronaldo has a muscular problem,” Karanka said. “He has not trained today or yesterday, so he is not in the squad for this game. We will see how he is in training on Sunday and Monday, but in principle he should be fine for Tuesday.”
Real Madrid will need Ronaldo on Tuesday is they want to have any chance of overturning the 4-1 deficit they made for themselves at the Westfalenstadion in the first leg. Ronaldo picked up his injury in that match and while he would certainly be useful against Atletico Madrid on Saturday, Real are just trying to hold off their rivals for second place. They are comfortably in a Champions League place without a chance of challenging Barcelona for the title so there aren't the same implications in that match as there are against Dortmund.
In addition to Ronaldo, Real will also be without Marceloa Arbeloa and Marcelo against Atletico, Karanka confirmed. That will likely mean another start for Fabio Coentrao at left back and Sergio Ramos at right back, with Pepe and Raphael Varane in the center to deal with Radamel Falcao.
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