James Rodriguez and Marcelo ruled out for Real Madrid trip to Legia but Dani Carvajal returns

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane has left both James Rodriguez and Marcelo out of his 19-man travelling squad for the Champions League group stage game against Legia Warszawa on Wednesday night (2 November). Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Casemiro and Luka Modric will also miss the game due to different injuries but Dani Carvajal returns to the list after missing the 4-1 victory over Alaves. Furthermore, 20-year-old defender Alvaro Tejero has been the biggest surprise of the trip to Poland after being promoted by the French boss from the second team.

Marcelo played the full 90 minutes during Saturday's 4-1 victory over Alaves and the boss may have decided to give him a rest ahead of the coming La Liga encounter with Leganes. Yet, Fabio Coentrao is back to full fitness and could make his first starting appearance of the campaign after he already played some minutes during the last week Copa del Rey victory over Cultural Deportiva Leonesa.

However, James' absence from the Champions League encounter was less expected as the Colombian international was an unused substitute during the weekend win over Alaves, with the Real Madrid boss then deciding to deploy Isco ahead of him in the middle of the park to fill the gap left by the injury of Modric.

Zidane will give a press conference later on Tuesday to explain the omission of both players from the squad.

Meanwhile, Pepe will miss the game after on Monday Real Madrid revealed he suffered a grade 2 muscle injury in the femoral biceps of his left leg during the weekend game at Vitoria. The Portuguese international is expected to be out of action for around one month, leaving Zidane with only two centre-backs available for the game against Legia in Raphael Varane and Nacho.

Sergio Ramos is still working in his recovery along Modric and Casemiro, with the trio expected to return to action at some point during the month of November.

Zidane has thus welcome back Carvajal to his 19-man squad, including also young Tejero to address the lack of effectives in his defence.

The Champions League winners beat the Polish outfit 5-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu and are in search for another victory away to give a step to the las 16 of the competition, being currently level on points with Borussia Dortmund at the top of the group F.