Revealed: Jude Bellingham was ‘one millimetre’ away from two-month injury lay-off as Real Madrid get silver lining

Los Blancos have revealed that their England international midfielder is set to be missing for between two and three weeks after taking a blow during their La Liga clash with Girona. Bellingham was forced off following a collision with Pablo Torre.

He played on briefly, netting his second goal of the game, but eventually had to be replaced and threw his boots in frustration when reaching the bench – before seeing his ankle wrapped in ice. While the 20-year-old will be disappointed to be heading for the treatment table, his situation could have been much worse.

According to AS, Torre’s challenge was “one millimetre” away from inflicting ligament damage on Bellingham. If that had been the case, then he would have been sidelined for a few months. Vinicis Junior suffered a similar problem in 2019 and claimed to have spent “six months in fear; when it was cold, it would hurt without doing anything”.

For now, Bellingham is dealing with nothing more than a strong sprain. He has been ruled out of the first leg of Real’s Champions League last-16 encounter with RB Leipzig and is also expected to miss domestic outings against Rayo Vallecano and Sevilla.