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Early crisis strikes Real Madrid: Mourinho finds a lifeline

Central defence crisis worries Mourinho before La Liga kicks off

Injuries are hammering Real Madrid's defence again just as the La Liga season kicks off.

Jose Mourinho has five defenders in his first-team squad, but two of them, Eder Militao and Raul Asencio, will sit out the opener against Espanyol through injury.

AS newspaper report that Real Madrid will begin the campaign with a back three of Dean Huijsen, Antonio Rudiger and Ibrahima Konate.

Konate returned to training last Monday. He now has two weeks and a friendly against Schalke to reach peak fitness before La Liga gets going.

Huijsen, meanwhile, picked up a minor strain that kept him out of the first official test. He arrives off the back of a season as the club's most-used centre-back, racking up 40 appearances.

Rudiger completes the trio. A knee injury cut into his availability last season, but he has already clocked 45 minutes in the friendly against Ferencvaros and started against Deportivo.

Branislav Racko
Castilla solve Real Madrid's defensive crisis
With the season yet to begin and players in the treatment room, the old fears loom over Real Madrid's fans once again. When crises deepen, big solutions tend to arrive, and this time it was the club's academy that delivered one.
Mourinho has found an answer in the reserve team. Both Joan Martínez and Mario Rivas started the first two matches of the summer.
The Portuguese coach praised the defensive duo, though he asked them to sharpen certain aspects of their game.
One of them, though, will have to complete the matchday squad as the fourth centre-back when La Liga begins.
They call Joan Martínez "the new Ramos", the gem the club is polishing at Valdebebas. The other card is Mario Rivas, who scored his first goals with the first team against Ferencváros, rising with great confidence to turn Alexis Cerra's cross into the net.
Mourinho handed him a starting place against Fiorentina and Ferencváros, letting him wrestle with Moise Kean as part of his education and experience, and he passed on the same message he had given Joan.
Real Madrid's technical staff head into the new season with very few options at centre-back. Castilla, though, offer two big prospects who shone in pre-season, ready to help the first team face Espanyol.