Real Madrid playmaker Marco Asensio has reportedly been ruled out his side’s Champions League game against APOEL for the strangest of reasons.
The Spanish giants and reigning European champions begin their CL campaign at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night, but they’ll be missing a key player.
Spanish site ABC, as re-reported by The Sun, claim that the 21-year-old has an infection, caused by shaving his legs and cutting a pimple on one of his pins.
It’s added that Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane couldn’t hide his amusement over the entire situation, as he confirmed that “a pimple… which stopped him pulling up his socks” would rule him out of action.
In truth, Madrid should get on fine without him as they’re heavily backed to see off APOEL and kick-start the defence of their European crown with a win in the Spanish capital.
However, aside from a touch of embarrassment now that the story has gone viral, Asensio will undoubtedly be disappointed to miss out on a potential opportunity to further establish himself in the starting line-up.
It remains to be seen how long he’s sidelined for as clearly it’s a very sensitive and serious setback, but unfortunately for him, he’s provided us all with a good laugh as we wait for the second instalment of Champions League football this week.
In his absence, Zidane will still have a whole host of options at his disposal as he could use this outing as an opportunity to rotate his squad.