Kylian Mbappe left ‘confused’ after hitting unwanted career high with Real Madrid

Mbappe will sit out Monday's welcome of Madrid rivals Getafe owing to an ongoing knee problem that has plagued the France captain in recent months. The issue stemmed from an injury sustained in the 2-0 home defeat to Celta Vigo in December.

The 27-year-old played the full 90 minutes of the loss as Williot Swedberg came off the bench to bag a second half brace in a surprise result. However, the former Paris Saint-Germain man was an unused sub in the 2-1 home defeat to Manchester City in the Champions League three days later, before returning for the win at Alaves a week after the Celta reverse.

After netting in the victory over Sevilla prior to the Christmas break, Mbappe didn't feature again until the Supercopa de Espana final defeat to Barcelona having sat out the semi-final win over Atletico Madrid. Even then, the French forward only featured off the bench as Real Madrid sought to rescue the result.

The 3-2 reverse ultimately cost Xabi Alonso his job as Real Madrid head coach.

Mbappe then sat out Alvaro Arbeloa's first game as Real Madrid boss, a shock 3-2 Copa Del Rey defeat to Albacete, only to then again play the full 90 in the 2-0 home triumph over Levante, a match he again scored in.

With the knee problems mounting, however, Mbappe has already surpassed his longest single-season absence, which previously came in the 2019-20 campaign where he missed 51 days to injury.

This season alone, the forward has already missed 53 days due to eight separate setbacks, a figure that will only rise as he sits out Monday's game against Getafe after missing Wednesday's Champions League win over Benfica. Goals from Aurelien Tchouameni and Vinicius Junior in midweek wrapped up a 3-1 aggregate victory at the expense of the Portuguese side after Arbeloa oversaw a 1-0 win in Lisbon in the first leg.

The game itself, however, was marred after Gianluca Prestianni allegedly racially abused Vinicius Junior.

Real Madrid's aggregate triumph over Benfica set up a last-16 Champions League tie with Manchester City. The winner of the meeting between the two European powerhouses will then face off against either Atalanta or Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of the competition.

Los Blancos, though, fear that Mbappe will miss the game against City. "Let's hope it's nothing serious, because he's very important to us. At the moment, we don't know if he'll be available against Manchester City," club director Emilio Butragueno has admitted.

Both Mbappe and Real Madrid are now weighing up the next options in order to avoid further flare ups with the player himself keen to avoid going under the knife to rectify the issue with the World Cup a little over three months away.

Mbappe is set to captain Les Bleus in what will be Didier Deschamps' final competition as France head coach. Deschamps, who masterminded the 2018 triumph and came close to successive World Cup successes in 2022, will want to bow out with a final World Cup winners' medal around his neck.

Rather, Mbappe is now working with the club's medical staff in order to find a viable alternative to surgery that would put his World Cup dream in jeopardy. The France star was vital as Deschamps' men eased to the 2026 showpiece, scoring five goals and providing three assists across four outings.

Real Madrid are hoping to return to winning ways to boost their La Liga title hopes having fallen to a 2-1 loss to Osasuna last weekend. The result, combined with Barcelona's 3-0 win over Levante, saw the capital side drop to second in Spain's top tier ahead of the weekend's action.

Barcelona can temporarily open up a four-point lead over Real Madrid when they welcome Villarreal to Spotify Camp Nou on Saturday afternoon.