Real Madrid have drawn up a carefully devised plan to get young midfielder Thiago Pitarch back to full fitness, hoping he can earn a chance in the Whites' upcoming matches.
According to "Marca", the current international break has fallen at just the right time for Pitarch. The club have devised a plan to help him recover his sparkle over the coming period.
At the heart of that plan is a spell with Castilla in the weeks ahead, taking advantage of the first team's absence from competition.
It gives him the chance to rebuild his fitness after injury and rack up the playing time he could not get under José Mourinho.
Pitarch had returned to the Real Madrid squad but did not feature in any of the four matches against Inter, Rayo Vallecano, Elche and Atlético Madrid.
So during the break, he will join the reserve team and be available to Julián López de Lerma next Wednesday for Castilla's postponed match against Sant Andreu.
Mourinho made the call after Thiago suffered a knee injury that cost him the pre-season and left him short of the fitness needed to feature for the Whites.
The international break means Real Madrid will not play again until 10 October. In the meantime, Castilla have three league matches, one of them a derby, that will hand Thiago valuable minutes with the reserves before he returns to Mourinho's plans.
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There could be more, too. Thiago's intensive three-week preparation programme, and he holds both Moroccan and Spanish nationalities, may be topped up by a call-up to the Spain under-20 side, who face Mexico on 30 September in a game the midfielder could feature in.
That match has no confirmed date, after the original plan to stage it in Ceuta fell through.
Thiago has not played for two and a half months, since lining up in the final of the European Under-19 Championship with Spain on 11 July. He then suffered an injury shortly after returning to training at Valdebebas, and has not played a single minute since.