Real Madrid sweating on Ceballos and Vallejo injuries but Karim Benzema could return for Deportivo

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane has been handed two fresh fitness concerns after midfielder Dani Ceballos and centre-back Jesus Vallejo both suffered injuries during the Copa del Rey quarter-final first-leg victory over Leganes on Thursday night [18 January].

Zidane's side visited their neighbours following a three-match winless run that saw them draw with Celta Vigo and Numancia before suffering a disappointing defeat to Villarreal in La Liga.

A last-minute winner from Marco Asensio helped Real get back to winning ways and secure a narrow advantage ahead of the second leg to be played at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday 24 January.

But the much-needed victory still came at price for Zidane, with the Real boss losing two players to injury.

21-year-old centre-back Vallejo was forced off and replaced by Nacho in the 15<sup>th minute of the game, while the talented Ceballos also had to give up his place to Luka Modric early in the second half due to a problem in his knee.

"Ceballos took a bit of a knock. He pulled up a bit and in the second half he couldn't go on as he would have liked. I had to take him off," Zidane confirmed in a press conference that followed the win at Leganes.

"Vallejo got injured and he's not happy. We will carry out some tests tomorrow or the next day."

Zidane is now sweating on the results of the scans ahead of a busy week in which Real host Deportivo La Coruna in La Liga on Sunday three days before the Copa del Rey decider against Leganes.

Those two games may still come too early for Sergio Ramos after the club confirmed on Thursday morning that the captain was continuing to work on his own as Real returned to training to begin preparations for Deportivo.

However, Karim Benzema trained with the rest of his teammates and is expected to be ready to return to action at the weekend.

The Frenchman has not played at all since the defeat to Barcelona on 23 December but has been training since Monday and could return against Deportivo to give Zidane the chance to form a fearsome trident featuring him, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.

Zidane's selection plans are uncertain but the Real boss hopes that whoever plays can use the win against Leganes as a springboard to turnaround Los Blancos' fortunes during the second half of the season.

"We've got a long way to go," he added. We need to get our confidence back, score goals and stop conceding. We cannot sit here and say we played well but we got an important result for the tie and that is positive.

"There are moments when the going gets tough, but we need to have a little patience and know that together we can move forward. This win could well be a turning point for us and we may well go on to get three or four positive results.

"It was important to win and we were disciplined at a difficult ground to go to against a team who defend very well. We're happy with the result. We played well against Villarreal but couldn't score, and today we didn't play as well but got the goal. Hopefully sooner rather than later we manage to do both."