A huge blow for Real Madrid. Thibaut Courtois left training in tears and is unlikely to score again this year

The new season is slowly but surely knocking on the door and Real Madrid will play the first game of the new season this Saturday. In this game, they will have to do without a key figure.

This Friday, the new 2023/24 season will get underway. Real Madrid will enter it on the ground of a very unpredictable and unpopular opponent.

They will face Athletic Bilbao, against whom Carlo Ancelotti will be able to test for the first time the new system and formation that he has been working hard to implement during pre-season.

The Italian coach has most likely made up his mind on the line-up he will use for the match. However, it seems that he will have to make at least one change.

Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in training and will have to undergo surgery, after which he could miss at least the entire autumn.

This leaves Real Madrid’s management with a very unpleasant situation indeed, as they now have to consider whether to give full confidence to Ukrainian Andriy Lunin or to look around the transfer market for a possible replacement, at least in the form of a one-year loan deal. In case of such a serious injury, it may not be out of the question that he may even miss the whole season.

The thirty-one-year-old goalkeeper has developed into an indispensable figure in the starting line-up at Real Madrid. After a difficult start, when he was even booed by the White Ballet fans, he has become a figure whose saves have led Los Merengues to win many trophies.

Courtois has been at Real Madrid since 2018 and was now set to start his sixth season at the Santiago Bernabéu.

During this tenure, he has played 230 games and won eight trophies, including the Champions League, which he has a huge amount of credit for. It was he who drove Liverpool’s goal scorers to despair in the final game with his interventions.

It will now be very interesting to see how the club’s management handles the situation. For Real Madrid, however, this is a huge embarrassment.

Source: Real Madrid, Transfermarkt