Atletico trained without the players on international duty

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone continued on Wednesday with preparations for next Saturday's return to action against Espanyol, with Julian Alvarez, Rodrigo de Paul, Giuliano Simeone, Nahuel Molina, Angel Correa, Jose Maria Gimenez, Alexander Sorloth and Reinildo Mandava still awaiting their return to action.

With both Le Normand having played 210 minutes for Spain in the intense Nations League quarter-final tie against the Netherlands and Oblak having played for Slovenia against Slovakia, those are the eight internationals yet to return to the team's dynamic after international matches.

All of them are expected for the afternoon session this Thursday, although probably with recovery work for most of them, so Simeone will only have one training session, on Friday, with all of them to prepare for the match at the RCDE Stadium.

While Correa is the only certain absentee due to his five-match ban for his sending off and his insults to the referee against Getafe (he still has four more matches to serve), Simeone has Koke back, available to the coach after six matches out of competition due to a muscle injury.

The captain trained with the group again on Wednesday, as he has done since the beginning of the week, which means he will be back in the squad against Espanyol.