Varane and Keylor Navas miss workout as Real Madrid return to training following draw with Tottenham

Raphael Varane and Keylor Navas were unable to train with the rest of Real Madrid available teammates on Thursday morning (19 October) as Zinedine Zidane's side began preparations for the Sunday's visit of Eibar.

Meanwhile, Gareth Bale, Mateo Kovacic, Dani Carvajal and third keeper Luca Zidane also remained on the sidelines after the quartet already missed the Tuesday's 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League due to different fitness issues.

Both Varane and Navas completed the full 90 minutes on Tuesday night and eventually played a crucial role in the final draw.

The French centre-back scored an own goal to give Tottenham the lead in the 28<sup>th minute of the game before Cristiano Ronaldo equalised from the penalty spot.

Meanwhile, Navas was arguably Real Madrid's best player on the pitch with the keeper making a couple of great saves to prevent Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen given Spurs all the three points late on.

However, Real Madrid have revealed that the defender and the keeper missed the Thursday's workout as the rest of Los Blancos available players returned to training on Thursday after enjoying a day off on Wednesday.

Los Blancos have failed to explain the reason behind their absences but it is worthy to point out that Navas had already missed the last weekend's 2-1 victory over Getafe due to a groin injury sustained on international duty with Costa Rica.

Yet, it looks still soon to know whether the duo could be ruled out for the upcoming clash with Eibar as Real Madrid will still have two more training sessions – Friday and Saturday – before the visit of the Basque side.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid confirmed that Kovacic, Bale, Carvajal and Luca neither trained and it seems unlikely that Zidane will recover any of them in time to face Eibar.

"The team have returned to training after the Champions clash with Tottenham. The Whites carried out their first training session before taking on Éibar on Sunday (8:45pm CEST). Ball work was the main focus, as Zidane brought the under-19s goalkeeper Moha into the fold," the club confirmed.

"The players completed ability and precision drills before playing several games on reduced size pitches. Luca trained alone out on the pitch. Keylor Navas and Varane trained using the indoor facilities, whilst Kovacic, Bale and Carvajal continued with their recovery processes."

Kovacic has been on the sidelines for the last two months while Carvajal and Bale are yet to play a game since the 3-1 Champions League victory over Borussia Dortmund on 26 September.

Earlier in the week Zidane refused to put a time frame on their recoveries but the boss suggested that Bale could even miss the Champions League second leg against Tottenham to be played at Wembley on 1 November

"I can't tell you the date they'll return. With Dani we have to wait, but every day is one less. He's really looking forward to coming back with us. Mateo needs more time, but he's getting better. Regarding Gareth, I can't tell you if he's going to be back for the second game. I hope he's back with us soon," Zidane said in the press conference ahead of the visit of Tottenham.

"We're going to play a lot of games, the season is very long. Three players are missing, but gradually things are returning to normal. During the season there'll always be difficult times, but lately we're winning and improving. That's good for everyone".