October 14, (THEWILL) – The Spanish Higher Sports Council has confirmed that Real Madrid’s next match against Athletic Club has been postponed to give Los Blancos’ South American players time to recover after the international break.
FIFA’s decision to delay matches for some CONMEBOL teams, including Brazil and Argentina, until the early hours of Friday, October 15, has left clubs across Europe dissatisfied.
Real were supposed to play Athletic on October 17, before travelling to Ukraine to face Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League two days later, but it has now been confirmed that the Athletic game has been postponed to allow Real players to recover in time for the European match.
An official statement from the League read: “Today, the CSD has communicated to LaLiga the approval of the precautionary request for postponement requested, corresponding to Day 9 of LaLiga Santander.
“This request for postponement responds to the already known fact of the extension by FIFA of the international period of Conmebol selections until Thursday night, October 14 (early morning of Friday 15, in Spain) and that affects, among others, the aforementioned clubs due to play their official UEFA Champions League matches on Tuesday 19 October.
“The dates and times for holding the postponed matches will be communicated by LaLiga in the coming days.”
With Brazil ready to face Uruguay, Real will be represented by no fewer than three players. The host team will be led by centre-back Eder Militao and winger Vinicius Junior, while Uruguay will be led by midfielder Federico Valverde.
Both Marcelo and Casemiro were ruled out of the Brazil team due to injury, while promising winger Rodrygo Goes was simply left out.
The tie between Real and Athletic Club is not the only one postponed as Granada versus Atletico Madrid has been rescheduled for the same reason.
Jose Maria Gimenez and Luis Suarez are on international duty with Uruguay, while Rodrigo de Paul and Angel Correa are both in Argentina’s team that will face Peru early on Friday morning.
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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
