Mourinho hails Real Madrid’s best injury record in a decade

Real Madrid have reached the middle of October without suffering a single new injury this season, a record Jose Mourinho says has not been achieved by the club in the past 10 years.

Mourinho has made player fitness and availability a central priority at the start of the campaign. At his news conference before Friday’s match against Villarreal, he redirected questions about Kylian Mbappe riding a bicycle towards the condition of his squad.

“Do you want a story? I’m touching wood, because football remains football, but do you want a story? I’ll tell you one: this is the first time in the last 10 years that Real Madrid have reached the middle of October without a single injured player,” said the Portuguese manager.

His statement excluded four players still carrying injuries from last season: Ferland Mendy, Eder Militao, Rodrygo and academy player Raul Asencio. Asencio eventually required surgery for a stress fracture in his right leg after suffering with the problem for several months.

The other 22 players in the squad are fully available as Real Madrid resume competition. Comparisons with previous seasons are complicated by this year’s longer international break, so the club’s record has been assessed against the final La Liga fixture before the October break, by which point the first two Champions League rounds had also been played.

Mourinho previously outlined the club’s approach before the match against Elche.

“We are working here within a comprehensive, normal and professional plan, based on very good co-operation between everyone. When I say everyone, I mean the players, who are the most important, and the coaching staff, which includes qualified people in sports science, prevention, muscle strengthening and individual training,” he said.

He added that the club also monitored “small indicators that may appear before problems occur”, while the medical staff contributed through “a lot of invisible work”.

A sharp contrast with recent seasons

In 2026-27, Rodrygo, Mendy and Militao have yet to play because of injuries sustained last season. Militao is expected to return after the November international break, when Real Madrid are due to play Celta Vigo, PSV Eindhoven and Alaves in succession at Santiago Bernabeu.

Tiago and Endrick missed the opening matches with minor pre-season problems, while Aurelien Tchouameni was unavailable until the fifth game, Real Madrid’s Champions League opener, because of an issue dating back to the World Cup. No player has missed a match because of an injury suffered after the current season began.

That represents a significant improvement on the previous campaigns. In 2025-26, Ferland Mendy, Endrick and Jude Bellingham began the season injured, missing six months, four months and the start of the campaign respectively. Eduardo Camavinga then missed a month, while Antonio Rudiger, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dani Carvajal suffered muscle injuries. There were 18 injury-related absences in the first 10 matches, with Dean Huijsen and Dani Ceballos later missing two games each.

The 2024-25 season began with Camavinga injuring the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in training before the UEFA Super Cup. Jude Bellingham, Jesus Vallejo, Ceballos, Tchouameni, Brahim Diaz, Carvajal, Kylian Mbappe and Thibaut Courtois also visited the medical department, contributing to 32 missed matches in the first 10 fixtures. Carvajal suffered a serious right-knee injury against Villarreal, while Courtois, David Alaba and Brahim Diaz were already unavailable.

In 2023-24, Courtois and Militao suffered anterior cruciate ligament injuries at the start of the season. Vinicius Junior missed four matches, Carvajal two, and Arda Guler endured two setbacks. Players missed 52 matches across the first 11 games.

The earlier figures were also substantial: 21 absences in the first nine matches of 2022-23; 60 in the first 10 of 2021-22; 16 in only four matches in 2020-21; and 45 in 2019-20, when Marco Asensio suffered a cruciate ligament and meniscus injury against Arsenal.

The totals were lower in 2018-19, at 12 absences in 11 matches, but rose to 32 in the first 10 games of 2017-18 and 23 in the first 10 fixtures of 2016-17. Those seasons included absences for players including Marcelo, Dani Carvajal, Isco, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Keylor Navas, Casemiro and Luka Modric.