Real Madrid have doubts about whether Alaba will be the same again after injury

Real Madrid went into the season with a central defender less than they had planned, and that is without counting the injury to David Alaba, who is still thought to be months away from a return. Los Blancos are taking things as slowly as possible.

Alaba is back running, but as detailed by Diario AS, Los Blancos are taking things as slowly as possible. In contrast to the injury suffered by Eder Militao, Alaba’s knee is described as ‘totally destroyed’, with not only the anterior cruciate ligament affected, but also his meniscus and tendons. Normally players are back running after 100-120 days following an ACL, but Alaba took 255 days.

That in part was due to a second operation in May, when it was detected that Alaba’s knee was not healing as they wanted, although it was a much more minor intervention. The idea is that Alaba will be back in November, but the club and the player are keen not to set targets for the veteran defender. They want to be as patient as possible, as the diagnosis was worse than first thought, and there is genuine doubt over whether he will be the same again – hence they want to be as cautious as possible.

The fear will be that if he does not get back up to speed before the end of the year, perhaps Real Madrid will consider going into the transfer market. Alaba was earmarked for an important role this season, and with Jesus Vallejo not in their plans, relying purely on Eder Militao, Antonio Rudiger and makeshift option Aurelien Tchouameni seems a risky strategy.