Zinedine Zidane will hope his side can make up ground on one of his rivals as first-placed Barcelona travel to second-placed Valencia, with Los Blancos currently trailing the La Liga leaders by 10 points.
Real Madrid have had a difficult start to their league campaign and a disappointing draw in the Madrid derby last time out against Atletico meant Barcelona could extend their lead at the top.
Madrid will expect to get all three points against a struggling Malaga side, although the Andalucian side are on the up, having won two of their last three league games, after failing to win any of their first nine.
Sergio Ramos and Gareth Bale have both returned to training and but won't feature for Los Blancos, while with Mateo Kovacic and Keylor Navas could return. Marco Asensio will miss out due to a minor injury.
Malaga have their captain, Recio, back in contention for the game.
Possible lineups:
Real Madrid: Casilla; Carvajal, Varane, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo; Casemiro, Ceballos, Modric, Isco; Ronaldo, Benzema.
Malaga: Roberto; Rosales, Baysse, Hernandez, Juan Carlos; Keko, Recio, Adrian, Castro; Penaranda, Rolan.