“Thibaut Courtois will join the group next week. He is doing well and can play against Cadiz,” Ancelotti said at the very end of his press conference on Thursday. They call it a “bomb” in Spain.
The Belgian goalkeeper tore his cruciate ligament in August and had to recuperate for months. When he returned to the training field in March, he injured his other knee, resulting in meniscus surgery. His season was expected to be over.
The match against Cadiz in which Courtois could make his comeback is not just any match for Real Madrid: the Royal could crown themselves champions of Spain for the 36th time that weekend – provided they beat Real Sociedad on Friday. First pursuer FC Barcelona has to play the difficult derby against seasonal revelation Girona on the same day.
No Courtois against Bayern yet
For Courtois, a disastrous season could end in a very festive way. Real is also in the semi-finals of the Champions League. Next Tuesday they will play a visit to Bayern Munich – a match that will anyway come too early for Courtois.
In principle, his replacement Andriy Lunin will also take charge of the return match a week later. Deploying Courtois so soon after such a long injury in a match of such importance seems like a risk that Real would rather not take. Moreover, Lunin did well this season as a replacement for the Belgian. He crowned himself the hero in the quarter-final against Manchester City by taking two penalties.
© ANP / Gerrit van Keulen
At the same time, his early comeback opens up prospects for Courtois to be in goal in a possible Champions League final. The final is scheduled for Saturday, June 1, and after the match against Cadiz, Real still has four league games remaining.
Courtois could use this to work on his rhythm and tighten the competition with Lunin – with an eleven-point lead, the title already seems as good as won. A lot depends on how Ancelotti sees things, but the fact that he is already putting our compatriot in goal against Cadiz seems like a good sign.
This changes nothing for the Red Devils
The good news about Courtois also means that he will be fit when the Red Devils start their European Championship, but the chance that he will be in goal in Germany next summer seems virtually nil. National coach Tedesco previously stated that he will no longer take the initiative to bring back his former number one for the European Championship after Courtois left the national team last year following a discussion about the captaincy.
However, Courtois does not seem inclined to take the first step either. Last month, he responded on social media to Tedesco saying he had “tried everything” with a ‘liar’ emoji.
