Mourinho’s Real Madrid face demanding start with seven August fixtures

Jose Mourinho’s return to La Liga with Real Madrid will begin under intense physical pressure, with the club scheduled to play four competitive matches in 14 days at the start of the 2026-27 season.

Mourinho took charge of Real Madrid this summer, with supporters expecting him to restore the club to the top of the game after two successive trophyless campaigns. However, Spanish newspaper AS says the manager’s opening weeks will be complicated by a demanding fixture list and concerns over player fitness.

Real Madrid’s first competitive match is at home to Espanyol on 22 August. They will then host Real Sociedad on 26 August before travelling to face Malaga on 30 August. The opening sequence will conclude with a meeting with Real Betis on 4 September.

The schedule is particularly demanding because a number of key players are not expected to join the squad until 10 August. Cucurella, Mbappe, Tchouameni, Konate and Bellingham would therefore have only about a week to prepare for the first match.

That has heightened fears of further injuries at a club which endured what has been described as years of disorder in its physical preparation. Real Madrid suffered 52 injuries last season, with Asensio the first player to be ruled out this campaign. Dean Huijsen has also been affected by a muscle strain in his left thigh, while Asensio is expected to miss around six weeks with a hamstring injury.

Club president Florentino Perez, speaking during his election campaign, attributed much of last season’s problems to the impact of the FIFA Club World Cup.

“The reason for the bad season lies in the Club World Cup; we were unable to have a proper pre-season, and we could not recover physically because we played matches on Wednesdays and Sundays every week, which led to the high number of injuries,” he said.

Improving the squad’s ability to cope with the workload was one of Real Madrid’s priorities during the summer. The club brought in Alexandre Krozeh, the highly regarded doctor from Monaco, to help address the injury crisis that affected the team last year.

Mourinho has also had one of his principal requests met: having two players available for every position. The arrivals of Cucurella, Konate, Dumfries, Espe and Bernardo Silva have helped satisfy that demand, while the possible signings of Diomande and Rodri remain under consideration.

The Portuguese manager understands that maintaining a large squad and rotating players without losing cohesion or performance will be essential to meeting the demands of modern football.

A crowded preparation schedule

For several years, Real Madrid held their pre-season camps abroad, with the United States a favoured destination in recent times. Those tours helped strengthen the club’s profile while allowing the squad to work away from the pressures of the capital.

That approach has not been possible in recent seasons. The Club World Cup disrupted last year’s plans, while the World Cup is the reason for the change this year. As a result, Real Madrid have returned to a more traditional preparation programme, based on friendly matches in Europe.

Three warm-up fixtures remain. They will be played across eight days: against Ferencvaros on 8 August, Deportivo on 12 August and Schalke on 16 August.

The schedule means Real Madrid will play seven matches during August, a workload more commonly associated with periods in which the club is competing in several competitions, including La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League.

Careful management of the players’ physical effort will therefore be crucial if the club is to limit further injuries. Four competitive matches in 14 days at the beginning of the league season, followed by seven games in August, will provide an immediate test of Mourinho’s new Real Madrid.

The demanding programme underlines the importance of the club’s summer fitness work as they pursue their main objective for 2026-27: winning everything again.