Positive News For Real Madrid Regarding Kylian Mbappe's Injury
Real Madrid booked their spot in the Spanish Super Cup final on January 8. They beat their city rivals Atletico Madrid 2-1 with goals from Rodrygo and Fede Vaverde. It sets up an El Clásico in the final on January 11 against Barcelona.
Head coach Xabi Alonso was without a handful of players due to injury, but none more major than striker Kylian Mbappe. It was the second consecutive game that Mbappe has missed, but they have managed to win both.
That being said, a team with Mbappe is more dangerous, and the stats don't deny that. Despite reports that he would miss both games, Alonso has confirmed he is travelling to Jeddah and could feature against Barca.
Kylian Mbappe could play against Barcelona
When the news broke that Kylian Mbappe would not travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, it was expected he would miss the final of the Spanish Super Cup if Real Madrid beat Atletico. We were wrong, as Xabi Alonso said in his press conference, he would be travelling. Not only that, he had some interesting things to say about his fitness.
“The final will be different, and Mbappé will travel tomorrow. He's much better. He has trained, and he feels good. His chances of playing are the same as for everyone in the squad.”Xabi Alonso
The fact that Alonso has said he has the same chance as everybody else to play suggests he is in a great place. It feels like the plan all along was to see if Los Blancos made the final, and then assess if the 27-year-old was fit to travel.
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🚨🧨 Kylian Mbappé returns available for the Super Cup final vs Barcelona.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 8, 2026
“He will come to Saudi in the next 24h, he feels much better. He has chances to play”, says Xabi Alonso. pic.twitter.com/kBWNGCni0A
The next question for Alonso is, does Mbappe come straight into the starting lineup? The Frenchman is third in the race for the European Golden Boot after winning it in the 2024-25 season. He has scored 29 goals in 24 games, so it's hard not to start him.
The dilemma is that Alonso has started the same team in the last two games, beating Real Betis and Atletico. His replacement, Gonzalo Garcia, scored a hat-trick against Betis and played well in the semi-final, mainly in the first half. That said, it's tough not to start a player of Mbappe's quality.
We will see the starting XI Alonso selects for the second El Clasico of the season on Sunday, January 11.
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-031bbeb5612ca252e2129722373fa56d.png "Jordan Merritt")
Jordan Merritt is a staff writer for Real Madrid On SI. Before joining On SI, he wrote at Fansided, covering Ole Miss football, basketball, and baseball. He has also written for YardBarker, Heavy Sports, and the official EFL site. Merritt is a big sports fan, spending most of his weekends watching Soccer, the NFL, the NBA, college football/basketball, and others. Before starting his career as a freelance writer, Merritt was an Engineer for over 10 years. He lives in West Yorkshire, England, and is keenly interested in sports trading cards.
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