Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale rested for Real Madrid trip to Leganes

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane will rest Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Toni Kroos for the trip to Leganes on Wednesday night (5 April). This will leave the trio fresh ahead of a crucial month, which include key games against Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Raphael Varane is also ruled out due to injury but Keylor Navas, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, James Rodriguez and Casemiro return to the 19-man squad after missing the weekend win over Leganes.

Los Blancos remain favourites to clinch La Liga, sitting two points ahead of Barcelona and with a game in hand against Celta Vigo still to play.

However, the month of April is expected to be decisive in the run-in as they have six different La Liga games in the space of 25 days, including a derby against Atletico Madrid on 8 April and El Clasico against Barcelona on 23 April.

In the meantime Real Madrid will also fight to regain the Champions League title with the double-leg quarter-final against Bayern Munich, to be played in Germany on 12 April and at the Santiago Bernabeu on 18 April.

Zidane has thus decided to give a much-needed rest to three of his most important players with Ronaldo, Bale and Kroos all left out of his 19-man squad to face Leganes.

Ronaldo's absence is no surprise as the current Ballon d'Or has already picked up four yellow cards in La Liga and would have missed the derby against Atletico if he had been booked against Leganes.

Meanwhile, Varane and the out-of-favour Fabio Coentrao are also ruled out after the France centre-back suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury during weekend's win over Alaves, which is expected to keep him on the sidelines for a while.

Zidane has recalled Keylor Navas, Ramos, Marcelo and James after they were rested at the weekend. Furthermore Casemiro, who was suspended against Alaves, is also back in the squad and should start in a much-changed line-up.

Meanwhile, the likes of Alvaro Morata and Lucaz Vazquez are expected to have a chance to prove their worth in the attack to cover the absences of Ronaldo and Bale.

Real Madrid will face Leganes after Barcelona host Sevilla at the Nou Camp, meaning a win for the Catalans could see them temporarily take top spot.