Kylian Mbappé will be assessed after suffering a mild ankle sprain in Real Madrid’s 3-1 win over Villarreal on Saturday, coach Xabi Alonso has confirmed.
Forward Mbappé was substituted in the 83rd minute at the Santiago Bernabéu, two minutes after scoring Madrid’s third goal — a strike which made it a career-best nine consecutive games scoring for club and country.
Madrid will play next on Oct. 19, with LaLiga taking a break for international matches this week.
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“I can’t say [Mbappé won’t go away with France],” Alonso said in his post-match news conference. “Right now he has some discomfort. They’ll have to evaluate it with the national team.
“We hope it isn’t serious. But right now we can’t say anything.”
France are due to play Azerbaijan in World Cup qualifying on Friday, followed by Iceland three days later.
Mbappé passed up the opportunity to score earlier in Saturday’s game, when he allowed Vinícius Júnior to take a penalty after the Brazilian was fouled in the box.
Vinícius converted the spot-kick for his second goal of the game, but Alonso said Mbappé remains Madrid’s designated penalty taker.
“They [the players] decided, but the taker is Kylian,” Alonso said. “We believe in him. It was their decision but the first-choice is Kylian.”
Alonso praised the performance of Federico Valverde at right-back — after the midfielder was forced to release a statement this week denying that he’d refused to play in the position — and described the impact of Vinicius as “decisive.”
“Vini had a very good game,” Alonso said. “I’m very happy with him, I like seeing Vini smile and enjoy himself. He could have had a hat trick, which would have finished off the all-round game he had.”
