Toni Kroos suffers knee injury ahead of Betis clash but Real Madrid star could return for PSG

Real Madrid star Toni Kroos is set to miss the upcoming La Liga trip to Real Betis on Sunday [18 February] after suffering a knee injury during Los Blancos' 3-1 victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League last 16 played at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday night (14 February).

The German international played the full 90 minutes against the Parisians but he ended the game with some pain in the knee and subsequent scans conducted by Real doctors have confirmed the blow.

"Following tests carried out on Toni Kroos by the Sanitas Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with a sprained to the exterior lateral ligament in the left knee. His recovery will continue to be assessed," the club confirmed through an official statement.

Real have failed to set a timeframe on his recovery but AS and Marca reports that Los Blancos hopes he will return in time for the decisive Champions League trip to Paris on 6 March.

The 28-year-old midfielder is definitely ruled out for the upcoming La Liga clash with Betis and AS believes that he could be out of action for around 15 days.

Real face five La Liga games against Betis (18 February), Leganes (21 February), Espanyol (24 February), Alaves (27 February) and Getafe (3 March) before travelling to PSG for the second leg next month.

Kroos' potential unavailability for those games would be a major a blow for Zinedine Zidane with Real currently trying to reduce the 17-point gap to leaders Barcelona at the top of La Liga table.

The Germany international has been unmoved in Zidane's starting line-up but the French boss has plenty of options to cover him in the form of Mateo Kovacic, Dani Ceballos or Marcos Llorente.

Long-term injury casualty Jesus Vallejo is currently the only other player who remains on the sidelines to face Betis with Real confirming that the centre-back continued his recovery on his own on Friday [16 February] as Cristiano Ronaldo and co began preparations for the trip to Sevilla.

"Real Madrid began preparation for the league match against Betis, which will be played this Sunday at the Benito Villamarín (8:45pm CET). With the exception of Toni Kroos, who worked inside the facilities, the players who started in the victory against PSG trained at a lower intensely," the club informed.

"The madridistas began training with various warm-up exercises with the ball before turning their attention to possession and pressing. They finished the session with a variety of games in reduced spaces. Vallejo continues with his recovery process and worked out on the pitch both with and without the ball."