Real Madrid will have to do without Dani Carvajal for the rest of the season after the right-back suffered a horror knee injury in Saturday’s home victory over Villarreal.
Carvajal, 32, ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), his external collateral ligament and the popliteus tendon in his right knee.
Madrid expect him to be sidelined for at least eight months and he will undergo surgery this week once the swelling on his knee has reduced.
The Spanish and European club champions were quick to announce the renewal of Carvajal’s contract for another year (it had been due to expire next June) following his injury.
But what are the club’s more immediate plans? Which players will Carlo Ancelotti call on to cover his position? And is the transfer market an option?
Let’s take a look.
Lucas Vazquez’s time to shine
The 33-year-old Vazquez, who has been at Madrid since joining their youth academy in 2007, will likely be Carvajal’s immediate replacement, slotting into the position in the same system.
It hasn’t always been his favoured role, however. Although he had featured at right-back very occasionally in the past, Vazquez only started doing so regularly in 2020 under Zinedine Zidane, having previously played mostly as a right winger. Since then he has been considered a full-back in the planning for each season.
Vazquez may not have the most glamorous profile in the Madrid squad, but he is hugely respected and appreciated at the club because of his work ethic, his team spirit and his performances. His contribution is all the more admired because it is not easy to always be in the shadow of Carvajal.
Last season Vazquez played 1,784 minutes in 38 games, making him the squad’s 16th-most used player, scoring three goals and providing eight assists. But he has a knack of putting in big performances when it matters. His contribution to April’s 3-2 home victory over Barcelona in El Clasico was vital — scoring one and assisting two goals, including Jude Bellingham’s stoppage-time winner for Madrid.
The Englishman’s reaction after that match showed just how much he is appreciated among the group. “Lucas Vazquez, you f***ing legend,” he wrote on X. Vazquez has often helped with the integration of new and younger players — another aspect of his importance to the squad.
Despite not having a major role in recent seasons, Vazquez’s priority has always been to stay at Real Madrid. The second half of last season earned him a one-year renewal — with his contract now set to run until June 2025.
Eder Militao another option
Moving Brazilian centre-back Militao to the wing is another option Ancelotti is considering.
It is not an unfamiliar position for the player, who in fact performed there frequently at Sao Paulo (2017-18) and in the second half of his season at FC Porto (2018-19), before leaving to join Real Madrid.
He has started at full-back with Madrid on three occasions. One of these came against Real Betis in 2020, before he had established himself as a first-choice centre-back. It was a disappointing performance, one the player considers his lowest point at the club. More recently, Militao played for Brazil as a right-back at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
But moving Militao would mean breaking up his centre-back partnership with Antonio Rudiger. And there might be another concern around his fitness. Militao suffered an ACL injury last season and he has missed the past two international breaks due to muscular problems, which suggests caution is required.
Despite starting the first eight games of the new La Liga season, coaching staff sources at Madrid — who, like all those cited here, preferred to speak anonymously to protect relationships — believe he has still to some extent been playing within himself. He is currently unavailable due to a thigh injury but is expected to be back in time for Madrid’s next match against Celta Vigo on October 19.
Federico Valverde redeployed?
The Uruguayan is another profile that would fit, but putting him at full-back would mean losing arguably the team’s best player in midfield so far this season. His importance has grown since the retirement of Toni Kroos.
Valverde has played a few times at right-back with Madrid — including in the Champions League — and his experience of being successfully deployed as a false right winger also adds weight to his appeal for the role. He would often cover Carvajal with Madrid attacking.
Ancelotti has already shown a willingness to move midfielders into more defensive roles with Aurelien Tchouameni and Eduardo Camavinga (they have featured at centre-back and left-back, respectively). It is another resource that allows him to play everyone when there are not enough places in the midfield and something that can help the fluidity of play from the back.
But Valverde, for his part, has said publicly that he feels best in midfield.
What are the academy options?
Sources around the club, including from the coaching staff and the academy, believe there is no ‘ready-made’ profile among the youth ranks set to step up to the first team.
The situation is a little different to that at centre-back, where Jacobo Ramon and Joan Martinez (another to have suffered an ACL injury this term) were highlighted as players expected to be around the dynamics of the senior squad.
Those same sources also agree that Ancelotti has not been too concerned with bringing graduates through, as he tends to favour more experienced heads within the senior squad. The Italian did, however, ask for coaching reports on the options available.
The three names most likely to feature in any conversations on the subject are Lorenzo Aguado, David Jimenez and Jesus Fortea.
Aguado, 22, has been with Madrid since 2010. He was part of the pre-season tour of the United States and this term has been with Real Madrid Castilla — the reserve team that currently plays on Spain’s third tier, managed by Raul. He is the favourite to join Ancelotti’s group day-to-day in training and to perhaps more regularly appear on the bench.
Jimenez, 20, joined Madrid in 2013. He too has been playing with Castilla. He made the Madrid bench for the 3-2 home win over Deportivo Alaves on September 24, when Aguado was injured.
Fortea, meanwhile, is only 17 but he is highly-rated. Madrid broke a so-called ‘non-aggression pact’ with city rivals Atletico Madrid to sign him back in 2022. Previously it had been agreed the clubs would not target each other’s youth players.
This season he has been excelling with Madrid’s under-19s, managed by ex-Liverpool full-back Alvaro Arbeloa — but he is not quite considered ready for the first team, given he has not yet featured for Castilla.
We should also briefly mention the 17-year-old Melvin Ukpeigbe. Born in Spain to Nigerian parents, he has represented the country of his birth at youth level and last season was on loan at Bayer Leverkusen’s academy.
The German club wanted him on loan this term, too, amid rival interest from elsewhere, but Madrid decided to keep him. This season he has been playing for the under-19s and for Real Madrid C — another reserve team made up mostly of youth players. They compete on the fourth tier of Spanish football.
Another option could be 19-year-old former academy prospect Alex Jimenez, who joined AC Milan in June. Sources close to the player say his goal is to return to Spain in the medium term, while Madrid — as is club policy when selling youth players — included a repurchase option.
However, this option only becomes active in the summer transfer window (both in 2025 and 2026), and Jimenez’s return is not being seriously studied by either side right now.
What about the transfer market?
Ancelotti and his staff believe that reinforcement is needed. They felt that way earlier this year following the failed attempt at signing Leny Yoro, too.
But club sources consulted this week say Madrid will not sign anyone immediately, as they see no compelling options on the free agent market. The same sources expressed strong doubts the club would look to make a move in the January window.
In general, Madrid tend not to make signings mid-season, as they prefer to wait for better value opportunities. Their last January signing for the first team was Brahim Diaz from Manchester City in 2019.
The idea at the moment is not to make any moves, but that is not to say Madrid are not studying the market. Nor is that to say the situation will not change. It remains to be seen, for example, how David Alaba’s planned return from his ACL injury will progress in December.
One recent answer from a coaching staff source summed up the situation like this: “We are used to it, but we will invent something and try our best.”
What about Trent Alexander-Arnold?
Another of Madrid’s strategies in the transfer window is to wait for players who are finishing their contracts, as happened with the signings of Alaba (2021) and Rudiger (2022) — as well as Kylian Mbappe in the summer.
In this context, one market opportunity would be Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is yet to renew his contract with Liverpool (it expires in June).
Like Mbappe last season, from January the 26-year-old will be free to negotiate with another club, although at the moment Madrid senior sources describe recent reports on the possibility of this happening as speculation.
However, recent history suggests that alone should not draw a line under the situation.
(Top photo: Alvaro Medranda/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
