Bellingham and Tchouameni back in action for UCL opener but Militao will miss out

Real Madrid's infirmary never sleeps. When one player leaves, another comes in, and that's very problematic. This Monday Carlo Ancelotti's team returned to training to prepare for Tuesday's game, in which Los Blancos open the new Champions League at home to Stuttgart, and they did so with two new players and one absentee.

On the positive side are Jude Bellingham and Aurelien Tchouameni. The Merengues' medical services wanted to take a conservative approach to avoid relapses and so neither took part in Saturday's win over Real Sociedad. Although they were seen training with their team-mates at the end of last week.

The Englishman and the Frenchman are now fully recovered from their injuries. Bellingham suffered a thin plantar muscle problem on 24 August and was expected to miss a month. The same goes for Tchouameni, who left France's training camp during the international break with discomfort in his left foot.

The dark side was the absence of Eder Militao. The Brazilian centre-back finished the game at the Reale Arena with a visible limp, complaining of discomfort in the knee he had surgery on after tearing his cruciate ligament. Carlo Ancelotti ruled out an injury after the game, but on Monday he trained on the sidelines as a precaution. ‘COPE’ claims that he will be out of action, although other media have left him in doubt until the last minute.

Added to Militao's absence is the injury to Brahim Diaz. The 25-year-old playmaker did have to be substituted in the first half of the game against Real Sociedad after feeling a twinge in the back of his thigh. Medical tests confirmed that he has an injury to the abductor longus of his right leg and could be out for up to three months.

Jacobo Ramon, one of the possible replacements for Militao, also trained on his own. Carlo Ancelotti also knows he is still without Eduardo Camavinga, Dani Ceballos and David Alaba, who is expected to be fit around November.