Stars with Spain, sidelined by Real Madrid
As Real Madrid challenge for their 13th European Cup, their opportunities to blood young players are limited, with three of their young stars featuring more for their country than the Real first team.
With the international break upon us, three Real Madrid players will no doubt be relishing going away with their national side.
The Spain U21 team continue their European Championship qualifying campaign, with Dani Ceballos, Jesus Vallejo and Borja Mayoral all key players for 'La Rojita'.
The trio are the players that have seen the least action under Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane this season, but they are among the first names on the teamsheet for their country.
None of the players mentioned have managed 800 minutes of action for Real this season, with Vallejo mustering just 554, Ceballos 714 and Mayoral 772.
The most interesting situation is that of Dani Ceballos, who left Real Betis after being the standout player at the U21 European Championships, only to barely feature at the Bernabeu, with rumours of a return to Betis beginning to swirl.
Vallejo shares captaincy duties with Ceballos at international level, with the former Real Zaragoza man a fixture in the centre of defence.
It is a similar story up front, where Mayoral has played almost 95% of the minutes possible for his national team, a completely different story to the situation he faces a club level when not even a horrible run of form for Karim Benzema could create space for him in the side.