Mourinho helps Real Madrid end long-running injury crisis

After years in which Real Madrid’s treatment room appeared busier than the pitch, muscle injuries have become a rarity under Jose Mourinho.

The Portuguese manager returned to the Santiago Bernabeu with more than trophies to deliver. One of his first priorities was to address a recurring problem that had repeatedly weakened the squad and forced the club to call on academy players, despite having a first-team group of almost 25 players.

According to Spanish newspaper AS, Mourinho and his coaching staff have overseen a significant improvement in the team’s physical condition. Apart from players who were already carrying injuries before the start of the season, Federico Valverde is the only player to have missed a match because of a muscle problem.

Valverde suffered his injury after the clasico at Camp Nou. Since then, no other Real Madrid player has sustained a muscle injury, a sequence the club had not experienced for several years.

Rodrygo, Tiago, Eder Militao, Ferland Mendy and Raul Asencio have not featured heavily, but each began the campaign with an existing injury. Most had been dealing with long-term problems, while Tiago and Militao have been gradually returning to full team training without suffering further setbacks.

The contrast with last season is stark. At the same stage of the previous campaign, Real Madrid players had missed 39 matches because of injury. That figure excluded players who had been injured during the previous season or the summer transfer window; including them, the total rose to 62 missed matches.

Antonio Rudiger, David Alaba, Dean Huijsen, Trent, Dani Carvajal, Aurelien Tchouameni, Dani Ceballos and Franco Mastantuono all suffered muscle problems during the opening months of last season.

Mourinho’s approach is based on closely managing players’ minutes and training loads. The aim is to avoid both excessive physical demands and a failure to prepare players adequately for matches.

That system has allowed the squad to maintain a higher level of fitness than in previous seasons. It has also enabled Mourinho to involve almost all of his players regularly, assigning them the appropriate role at the appropriate time while reducing the risk of another wave of injuries.

The Portuguese manager returned to Real Madrid to win trophies, but creating a more physically robust squad was an essential first step after the problems of recent campaigns.

It would be unrealistic to expect the club to avoid every injury until the end of the season. However, the number of absences has fallen noticeably since Mourinho returned to the Santiago Bernabeu.

While attention has focused on tactics and team selection, Mourinho’s most important battle has been taking place in the gym and the treatment room. For Real Madrid, the first sign of progress has been restoring the players’ availability.