With just days before the start of the new LaLiga season, Real Madrid will be without starting goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois for what could be the entirety of it.
Courtois suffered an injury during training and tests later confirmed it was an ACL injury.
“Following tests carried out on Thibaut Courtois, the player has been diagnosed with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee,” read the Real Madrid statement. “The player will undergo surgery in the coming days.”
An ACL injury is a serious injury with a lengthy recovery time ranging from six month to a year. In essence, it’ll be a minor miracle if Courtois plays any games for Real Madrid.
The Belgian goalkeeper released a statement of his own.
“You never expect to go through something like this but now it’s time to accept it and try to overcome it and come back even stronger,” Courtois said. “Thank you to everyone for the energy, love and encouragement, I assure you it motivates me to recover as soon as possible.”
Nunca esperas pasar por algo como esto pero ahora toca aceptarlo y hacer todo para superarlo y volver aún más fuerte. Gracias a todos por la energía, el cariño y lo ánimos, os aseguro que me motivan para recuperarme cuanto antes. 🤍 pic.twitter.com/Z30SEVhI7d
— Thibaut Courtois (@thibautcourtois) August 10, 2023
In recent successes, it’s been Courtois and Karim Benzema who have bailed Real Madrid out time and time again. It will be interesting to see how Los Blancos deal with the loss of two of their stalwart contirbutors.
With all the talk of Kylian Mbappe, perhaps Florentino Perez will be forced to target a new goalkeeper instead of the Paris Saint-Germain star.
The market does have a few well-known goalkeepers available with David de Gea as the standout. Infamously, De Gea could have joined Real Madrid instead of Manchester United all those years ago had it not been for a faulty fax machine.
In any case, this is an unexpected blow for Carlo Ancelotti and his team. To make matters worse, they won’t have it easy as their first game to kick off the new season will be away to Athletic Bilbao.